Dawn of The New Era
by DamonXPolchow
Summary: In the era where chaos, death and destruction was considered as common happenings, where the earth was filled with flesh eating living corpses, even the smallest light in existence could become the beacon that shone light onto mankind's path. Right now, a mercenary that held many story of forgotten past, along with his friends, is about to face it. The Dawn of The New Era.
1. Cargo Retrieval

_**Hey guys and welcome to my SAS 4 Zombie Assault crossover!**_

 _ **I've been having this thought for a while, about a story where my OC is living in its universe while several other characters I grew fond of appears one by one. That's, more or less, the origin of this story. So, with that plan in mind, I just started to make this story by myself.**_

 _ **For early information, this will be a SAS 4 Zombie Assault universe X Kantai Collection X Panzer/Metal Waltz. The settings will be in SAS 4 world while the character from the other two universes will be appearing in the story one by one!**_

 _ **Please be reminded that this will be my Second-ever-written story, so please expect some errors, especially in grammatical ones since English is not my main language. (Also, not many difficult terms of words for sure. Possibly could be boring too.)**_

 ** _Disclaimer: I do not own any of these game franchises. All credits goes to their rightful owner as I only owns my OC's._**

 _ **That would be all for now, if there is anything that I forgot to mention about in this note, I will put it up at the end of this chapter or in the future chapter.**_

 _ **Now with that out of the way, let's get started and hope you enjoy!**_

* * *

 **Chapter 1: First Encounter**

 _ **Location: Planet Thera**_

 _ **Time: 00:21**_

Desert, is the only thing he could see.

Vast desert is the only thing in every direction where the eyes could see.

How many times has passed since he made a landfall on this planet again? Hours? Days? Probably almost a week already. But the only thing he could see is an annoying sight of huge desert plain which is getting old as times pass by.

* * *

 _ **Name: Henry Duke**_

 _ **Age: 29**_

 _ **Occupation: SAS Mercenary, [Medic-Class]**_

 _ **Approximate Combat Level: 60**_

 _ **Rank/Position: Chief Field Surgeon**_

 _ **Appearance: Silvery White Spiky Hair – Red Fiery Eyes (Unknown red haze hue often could be seen by fellow mercenaries on certain times) – Pale Skin, Possibly Albinism - 185 Centimeters in height**_

 _ **Uniform: Standard issued [Medic-Class] SAS Mercenary Uniform (From Character Selection Image from the Game). Currently wearing a set of**_ **[RED][Dragonfly]** _ **armor made by Shotlite Weapons & Armors Manufacturer Company.**_

 _ **Personal Description:**_ _ **CLASSIFIED**_

* * *

"This planet hasn't changed at all." Henry let out a long sigh as he proceeds to move forward, in the direction where his mission coordinates have been pointed out to him.

The planet that Henry mentioned above, is no other but the _"Planet Thera"_ itself. It is a planet found by the human race in the Milky Way galaxy after they inhabit the Aartis planet. Thera was made of deserts, more deserts, and even more deserts. An endless desert planet that was used mostly as a testing planet, which is the short version of _'A planet of desert that was used for all kinds of research facility, ranging from simple mechanic engineering, to the high end technology, weaponry, and all those shit while also accommodating the workers in it.'_

It is well known that Thera was one of the most successful business planets in the solar system at the time of its glory. But all of that changes when the report of an unknown _alien virus_ broke out among the population of Thera that came from the workers stationed there. It was soon revealed that the virus are infecting the people living in the planet and turning them into walking corpses and undead monstrosities with a very aggressive nature which will attack anybody on sight without batting an eye. Soon, one of the most glorious places in the solar system for its research activity turned into the most deadly slaughter house in the solar system. And the virus's effects were so strong that it manages to find its way to spread to Aartis planet, where the human race resides, and the surrounding space station around Aartis.

Humanity is fighting what seems to be a one-sided war against its fellow humans that were affected by this unknown virus which turns them into hordes of terrifying, flesh eating undead for a long time. Local authorities and government military has been dispatched to stop the outbreaks that are occurring all over the planet but failed miserably while suffering heavy casualties. So many civilians' lives were lost, the police and the militaries are overrun, many countries crumbles from its former glory down to a ruined wasteland, and society soon follows to fall faster than a falling brick.

But, just as if all hopes seem to fade into nothingness, a small spark of hope made itself known in the face of many odds, gaining the attention of both civilians and government side, while also bringing a much needed relief for those who need them. They are a small group of individual that linked their palms together, and fight against the endless hordes of undead with iron fist while helping those who are in need with a soft heart as a pigeon, while also cunning like an owl. A group of mercenaries consisted of people that have their own reason to fight for their freedom and to take back what rightfully belong to humanity.

" **SAS: ZOMBIE ASSAULT"**

At the beginning of their career, The SAS Corporation had quite a hard time in dealing with the rapidly growing crisis all over the Aartis planet, but soon they're able to push back the hordes of undead from many of their territory. They managed to reclaim some of the smaller cities and towns which were converted into a survivor camp to accommodate those who have lost their homes. There, the survivors are given everything they need, ranging down from food, to proper medical attention for the sick.

As The SAS Corporation became well known, their numbers increases rapidly too. Now, with many hands available for deployment, The SAS began to make their way to reclaim everything that belongs to humanity that had fall into the hands of the undead. Even though the progress was so slow, but the proof of the Aartis's condition is improving is more than enough for the human race for now.

The SAS troops would have to go to the Mission-Counter in order to select a mission, or a contract, as some of the SAS said, that they will be partaking on. Those missions have their own sets of difficulties and time limit, and like any other common sense that exist in the world, the more difficult the mission is, and the more time required to complete the mission is going to affect the amount of rewards one will get. In Henry's case, around a week ago, he went to the Mission-Counter in order to pick one of many available missions that were offered at that time. Most of the missions are not suited for his taste. Either the missions would take too long or it is simply too difficult to do, even if it was conducted by a squad. But one particular mission peek his interest. Henry still remembers what was written down on the mission briefing paper, even right now.

* * *

 _ **Cargo Retrieval**_

 _ **From: Z-Arm Tech Industries**_

 _Z-Arm Tech has lost communication with one of its important cargo holding outpost on Thera. The last Intel received from its last known whereabouts reveals that an unknown epidemic have broke out among the population on Thera and the outpost was attacked by a group of unknown monstrosities. No further notices have been received from the crew on the spot since then. It is unknown what have befallen to the Z-Arm Tech's crews._

 _ **Main Objectives**_ _: Investigate the outpost's current whereabouts and retrieve all the important cargos._

 _ **Secondary Objectives**_ _: Find any possible survivors of Z-Arm Tech crew member._

 _ **Mission Rewards**_ _: If the contractor was able to find any leftover supplies; ammunitions, grenades, strongboxes, hardware, weapons, and a number of failed experiment items, it will be officially handed to the contractors. The Z-Arm Tech will also provide 500.000 SAS Dollars as compensation upon mission completion._

* * *

Hiking up another sand hill, he tried to scout out the surroundings, to see if there is anything he could find but nothing at all. It's still the same since the last two days. After sliding down the hill on his two feet, as if skating through the sand while going down the hill, Henry let out another sigh as he recalled what he had read in the mission paper. It didn't really sound THAT interesting, he must admit, but what got his interest is when the paper mentioned something about a 'failed experiment items'. As far as he knows, every weapons and armor manufacturer will never abandon their experiment, especially when they conducted that experiment in order to improve their bad reputation, and it's the Z-Arm Tech to top it off.

You see, Z-Arm Tech weapon manufacturer is one of the oldest weapon industries ever exist. They are a mainstream arms manufacturer from the 3rd millennium that specialized in their Z-series kits and equipment. However, this industry went out of business recently due to newer and more advanced weapons, armors, and technologies from other competition companies. Although many military departments still use the Z-series weapons as their standard issue.

' _Can't believe that they still want to post some missions for us, even after they went out of business_ ,' he thought to himself.

His mind then wanders back at the reason as to why he has to WALK to the designated area instead of being TRANSPORTED by the space transport shuttle a week ago.

' _Who the fuck actually forgot to refuel before they do their flight?_ ' he thought in annoyance.

Yes, the very reason as to why he was here, trudging through the vast desert by himself instead of being dropped off at the mission coordinates was because of a stupid mistake done by one of the Combot Pilot. A freshly recruited Combot Pilot who clumsily forgot to refuel his space shuttle for Henry's trip here, and now, the later was forced to walk by himself while the pilot went back to the closest space station in order to refuel. This could take about FOUR days of trip just to get there, mind you, because the pilot will have to go from planet Thera to planet Aartis! What luck!

But sarcasms aside, our protagonist better pick his pace if he doesn't want that pilot to land in the Area of Operation alone, which might be infested by those undead, while he was still trudging through the desert.

Henry spotted another rows of sand hills in front of him as he held up his arms to shield his face from the sand as another wave of wind passes by. "God damn it. Just how much farther this place is?" He cursed loudly under his breath. Not like anybody would be there to hear it. After the wind that blows the sand up around him subsides, he let down his arm and looked around him, only to find a huge column of sand storm is fast approaching from his left. "Ah, son of a bitch!" He cursed, again, and then he book it out of there by taking off into a sprint towards his right. As the sand storm is getting closer and closer by each passing seconds, his eyes frantically scans the environment for any means of protection from the incoming storm. Even if he was wearing a mask, a tactical combat helmet, and a gas mask which allows him to go through the sand storm without much to worry about, he still took cautious in case of any random wandering zombies see's him and decided to jump on him in the storm. Because facing an undead in an alleyway is still tolerable because your vision won't be hindered, but facing an undead in the middle of the open ground where you could get attacked from every direction with minimum line of sight, is another whole thing. Better luck with that.

He caught a small glimpse of a brown colored thing in the distance and soon found out that it was a small cave entrance. The mouth of the cave was small, but enough for him to squeeze through if he takes his change, to which he did. He ran with all his might as if life depends on the line and dived head-first into the mouth of the cave, breaking his fall by rolling on the floor, and saw the sand storm blows through and rages on outside in the last possible second.

"Damn, that was too close!" He exclaimed as he stands up to his feet. Henry then went to the mouth of the cave to check on how bad the sand storm is going on outside and reach to a conclusion that the storm will not disappear anytime soon judging by how thick the storm was and by the loudness of the wind.

Henry stayed silent as he watches how the storm is raging on outside of the cave before he brought up his left arm, where a small wrist-watch-like device with round blue light that is emitting a soft blue glowing hue was strapped on his wrist. "ISAC… Tell me, how long does this storm is going to last?" He said to the devise.

The device then lets out several computerizing sounds before it buzzes to live. " _Analysis indicates that the storm will last in approximately… Four, hours._ " The device on his wrist, ISAC, let out a robotic male voice as it answers Henry's question.

"Well shit. Looks like I won't be out of here for a while then. Thank you ISAC." Henry sighted loudly at his misfortune for being stuck in this cave.

" _The pleasure is mine._ " The ISAC answered him.

Henry looked around the cave and notices that the cave, despite its small mouth entrance, is quite huge on the inside which ended up being a small surprise for him. He wonders how did a huge cave like this could ended up here of all places, if not for the crew members on this planet who blow this hole out, then he don't have any better idea. "Maybe natural occurrence…? Nah, couldn't be it. Even if it does, then who removed all the rocks out of here anyway?" Henry stares at the shape of the cave's surface is like before shrugging his shoulders and said, "Better check out what's in here," and walks off around the cave.

As he went deeper to the cave, he discovers that this big cave is indeed man-made. Around the deeper part of this cave, he found a lot of abandoned construction vehicles, several small sized cranes for indoor lifting works, and lots of both wooden and metallic boxes being stacked up neatly around the place. He tried to check out what does these boxes held inside that he could take with him, thanks for the Contract's reward rule that gave him the permission to do so, but he didn't really found anything useful, much to his dismay. He didn't mind though, since he had his own doubt if this, most probably a mining facility has anything useful like guns n' bombs left around. But hey, one can hope. (Bad um tsssh!)

 _ **BANG!**_

The entire facility suddenly shook violently for a moment, shaking off all the dust and rust that it had collected from all of these years being dormant before it stops completely, but not before it triggered a switch in Henry's muscle memory called 'Full Alert Switch'.

"What was that, ISAC?!"

" _Sensor traces an extreme heat source appearing near the designated Area of Operation. Analysis indicates that an explosion had occurred in one of the main power plant. Suggestion reads the explosion is the cause of the sudden tremor._ " ISAC reported to him.

"Anything you recommend me to do about it? Cause' if you ask me, that doesn't sound too good. Do you think there's anybody still alive at the power plant?"

" _Conducting scanning process… Scanning complete… The radar captured a panicked biological matter inside the power plant nearby, and it is currently moving around the power plant. Recommend the Contractor to investigate the area._ "

"Alright then, can you scan the area around here to find some sort of passage we could use to get there?" Henry asked again while looking around the place to try and find a way with his own eyes but didn't find any.

" _The radar suggests a possible hidden passage hidden beneath the supply cache nearby._ "

Henry's eyes widened a tad bit at the mention of that. Hidden passage?

"Okay, transfer the location data to my HUD."

" _Understood. Sending coordinates now._ "

Henry let his left arm down as he took a deep breath for a moment. Then the sound of a computerized system that came from his tactical combat helmet's HUD could be heard, indicating that he have received the coordinates from ISAC's 'Information Transferring System'. A small glowing line then appeared on the floor, leading down to a huge stack of metallic boxes that he have passed earlier when he was scavenging for things. 'Wait, I've passed that passage? How did I miss that?'

" _Coordinates have been transferred successfully. Small underground passage has been discovered underneath this facility. Readings indicates that unknown signature with Light level threat are gathering inside the passage. Proceed with caution._ "

"I hear you." Henry said as he shook his head. 'Whatever, what's important right now is that I must find that survivor.' He then reached to his back and pulls out his **[RED][Ronson LBM]** before he cocked back the gun.

* * *

 **Personal Gun Intel**

 **Owner: Henry**

 **Gun type: Light Machine Gun**

 **Damage Type: Physical**

 **Augmentation: [Race Modded – Lvl.10] [Skeletonized – Lvl.10] [Deadly – Lvl.10]**

 **Gun description will be showed below;**

 _Ronson Large Bore Machine Gun (LBM)_

 _A light machine gun that uses heavy clip instead of belt to accommodate extra large rounds which allows the LBM to devastate most targets with ease. But it has a major problem. Due to its larger rounds compared to other light machine guns, it has less amount of ammo per magazine which means the user will spend more time reloading and it weights the user down as slow as a turtle. But when the user Augmented the gun correctly using the_ 'Race Modded' _that will lower the reloading time of the gun,_ 'Skeletonized' _that will reduce the overall weight of the gun, and_ 'Deadly' _which will increase the overall damage it will cause to a target, this gun could turn its user into a mobile killing machine._

* * *

"Alright, let's rock."

Henry leans his gun on the wall beside him as he swiftly removes the boxes one by one so he could get a clear access to the passage way. It was a square metal hatch with a diameter of half a meter with a bright red light beside the handle, which means that the hatch was locked. Henry then starts to press numerous small buttons on ISAC while making sure that the device stays near the hatch's surface. A single 'beep' sound erupted from the hatch before the red light turned into green, indicating that the hatch is now unlocked.

'Pffft, and they said playing with computer for too long doesn't grant you any good.' He thought as he lowers himself into the small hatch, not forgetting to grab his LMG first. In order for him to safe time, he let himself slides down the ladder as he sees that the way down is a little bit deep. Once landed smoothly and silently since he knows that there's a possible gatherings of undead in here, he dive rolled into the cover of a nearby metal create that is big enough to provide two people for hiding. Peeking from the box, he scans the area for any undead activity and found none, so he proceeds to move to another cover ahead of him, a concrete barricade. He sees that the passage is going down a bit and there's still no undead to be seen. After attaching a custom silencer for his **[Ronson LBM]** , he silently moves out of the cover and down to the next part of this passage. When he spots another cover nearby after arriving at the next part of this passage, he takes cover behind a small stack of metal beams. As the light above him flickers, he takes a small peek from behind his cover and he saw someone… Scratch that, he saw SOMETHING, standing in the middle of the passage way.

A figure is standing in his path. Its form is already hopeless to be described as a human anymore. With what seems like a purplish skin and numerous cuts and wounds all over its body while wearing no clothes except for black pants that was shredded to pieces with all those cuts and tears on it, while its fingers already turned into sharp bloody claws, it's impossible for not recognizing it. The monstrosity he's looking at is the basic of the basics forms of the undead. It was named as the **[Shambler]** by the SAS Corporation. Basically, **[Shambler]** was once a normal human that somehow got affected by the already mentioned unknown virus and turned into a flesh eating monster that will attack any human in its sight. It is admittedly pretty weak and easy to be dispatched off, but what they lack in power, they often make it up in numbers. It means that in Henry's case, it is a rare occasion where one could see a lone **[Shambler]** standing in one place. But Henry, being one of many SAS who have vast field experience in doing solo missions, is not buying it. The HAS to be more of them somewhere along the passage. It would be bad if every one of them comes charging after him.

Henry then slung his LMG on his back and swaps his weapon at hand with his pistol, the **[RED][Ronson 45]** that had its silencer on it.

* * *

 **Personal Gun Intel**

 **Owner: Henry**

 **Gun type: Pistol**

 **Damage Type: Physical**

 **Augmentation: [Deadly – Lvl.10] [Adaptive – Lvl.10] [Capacity – Lvl.5]**

 **Gun description will be showed below;**

 _This Ronson 45 pistol is one of the most powerful commercially available hand guns. Although it lacks the ammo capacity, with only 16 ammo for standard version and 22 ammo for RED and BLACK variant, but it makes up for the sheer stopping power. With the capability of piercing up to 4 targets with a single bullet, all it needed left to make this gun even more powerful is to add the_ 'Capacity' _Augmentation that increases its max ammo capacity, while putting the_ 'Adaptive' _Augmentation which reduces the target's_ 'Resistance' _by a certain percentage will help the user to deal with a constantly incoming waves of enemies._

* * *

After making sure that the coast is clear for the moment, Henry took aim with the pistol's sights and unleashes a single shot that struck the **[Shambler]** 's head from the side. Its head splatters in a small pool of blood as some brain parts exploded into tiny pieces as it fell to the cold hard ground like a ragdoll. Henry stays silent for several moments to find out whether any other zombies down the passage way heard the sound or not. But since no response coming from down the path, he continued down the passage with cautious stance. The passage way leads to a corner that went down to the right. Henry hugs the corner of the wall and pokes his head out to see three other **[Shamblers]** littered the way. He lines up another shot as he waits for the zombies to stand in a single straight line so he could take them out in one shot. When the slim change reveals itself, Henry pulls the trigger that unleashes another round of high powered and lethal bullet which strikes all three zombies dead on their head as they too, fell to the ground with a thud.

"Hmm? Oh, what do we have here?" When he was about to pass by the now dead zombies, he notices a sealed metal supply cache that had its seal's light shining green, which means it was unlocked.

"What a weird place for a loot box to be, but oh well, who cares? Might as well take it with me instead of letting it go to waste."

Accessing the sealed create, Henry acquired the containment inside the supply cache, which includes several standard military MRE along with 7 **[M48 UHE Fragmentation Grenades]** and 5 **[RED Cyro Grenades]**. After putting them all inside of his inventory, he proceeds to pick up the pace as he recalled the reason why he was going down this passage.

After several more zombie encounters, he finally reached the end of this underground passage which leads to a ladder going up. Climbing the ladder, Henry pushes away the metal hatch by using the seal handle and looks around him to make sure nothing is around. After he closes back the hatch, Henry brought up his ISAC device once more. "ISAC, gather the surrounding environment's data and upload it to my HUD's map. Try to find that biological signature you mentioned earlier while you're at it."

" _Request confirmed. Gathering area's data…_ "

While waiting for his device to complete its job, Henry looked around and notices that he was inside of what looked like an abandoned factory. He wasn't sure what was made in this factory in its fully operational days, but he guessed it to be some sort of mining factory judging by the amount of conveyor belts and left over small sized rocks all over the floor while the machines here are all collecting dust and rust. 'That sure explains why there are so many boxes around here,' he thought to himself. 'I hope whoever is still alive around that power plant is doing okay,' he continued.

" _Data has been gathered. This area was once known as Mining Facility Sector-576 on its operational days. No crew working under this facility is detected. An area map has been transferred to your HUD. Detecting the same biological signature nearby and it appears that the signature does not have any relations connected to this facility at all. Readings indicates the signature is still on the move. Proceed to investigate the anomaly with all forms of caution as the radar shows numerous high-level threats hostile around this area._ "

His map that was attached on his helmet's HUD began to shift its form as it reveals the entire mapping of the area around him and a bright blue dot somewhere around 498 meters away from him is moving all over the place while bright red dot was spotted all over the factory area, possibly including the power plant area too.

"Roger that. Keep an eye out for anything that might come up ISAC. I'll go after this 'guest' of ours." Henry said while adding a small emphasis on the word 'Guest'.

" _Aye aye, sir_ "

Henry followed the blue line on the ground that his HUD have given to him in order for him to locate the person inside the power plant, who are still running around while avoiding all of the red dots that he/she encounters on the way. Poor person must be having a dilemma right now, Henry thought to himself as he went up the factory's stairs. It leads him to a small door frame which leads outside to an old and rusty metal bridge when he opens the said door. Crossing the bridge, Henry ended up in another factory building that looks like a copy-self of the one he just went out of. The line of his HUD leads him out to a long exit that probably used once for parking a truck or something as big. When he reached the exit, he was greeted by several undead that were roaming around the place. He swiftly aims his **[Ronson 45]** pistol at three of the undead and scored all headshots which cause their brain to splatter across the desert ground before they could understand what happened to them. The rest of the zombies were alerted at the sudden death of their friends and looked at the direction where Henry is standing at while holding his smoking muzzled pistol.

"That's right, come and look at me ya' bitches!" Henry professionally put his pistol back into its holster and swapped his gun to his **[Ronson LBM]** which still has its silencer attached to its muzzle. Snapping a couple more shots from his LMG, the undead received a lot more casualties before they could even get close to Henry by receiving one, if not more, bullets to their facial area, ripping their rotten and weakened faces off before falling to the ground, never to be alive anymore. For several more of those who are… fortunate enough to avoid instant death, they only could get so close to Henry before being ripped apart by a shower of hot lead. One particular **[Runner]** even got his body rip into two half from the sheer overpenetration by the **[Ronson LBM]**. Henry stops firing his LMG when a **[Stalker]** managed to get close enough to take a swipe at him with its sharper-than-knife claws, but its attack was blocked by him as he swings his LMG to the undead's attack direction, erupting a small sound of metallic clash.

 _ **CLANG!**_

"Oh no you don't!" Henry then grabs the **[Stalker]** 's arm that it used to swipe at him before lifting it from its feet, and smashing it to the ground behind him with a very loud thud and a small hint of 'crack!' from it. The **[Stalker]** hissed painfully before doing its best to get up onto its feet, but was met by a swift and brutal bash to its skull by the stock of Henry's **[Ronson LBM]** , fracturing its skull, if not completely breaking it in the process before the said undead fell to the ground. But not before Henry shots it in the head to ensure that it stays dead, and not coming back to him when his back are wide open. The last two remaining undead, sensing that they are cornered let out a loud screech into the open air. Suddenly, the radar in Henry's HUD screamed in alarm by showing a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark right in the middle of it as it shows that all of the zombies around the area are headed this way.

" _Alert: Huge number of hostiles approaching._ " ISAC also joined in the spray.

Henry rolled his eyes to the side while groaning loudly, "I know ISAC! Tell me something that I don't know, would ya?"

" _Affirmative. Readings indicates that the hostile signature that once after our target is now approaching in this direction._ "

Henry could swear to himself that he face palmed hard mentally. He was being sarcastic and ISAC just answers him truthfully, rendering him unable to come up for some form of complain except, "Shut the fuck up, ISAC."

At the very least, he know that whoever is running around in the power plant are safe for now, if no more zombies would come after them. But that is not the case at the moment. What is important right now is that he must take out this imminent charge of zombies, or he'll be in deep shit.

He blasted a hole through both of the undead who called this horde here in the first place before reloading a fresh magazine into his LMG, preparing for the approaching horde.

"I hate those faggots."

As soon as he said that, more than 20 **[Runners]** and about 15 **[Stalkers]** came out from the building in front of him, charging at full speed in response of their late comrades call. Henry placed his LMG down beside his hip and begins to hip-firing the gun with a devastating accuracy. Scoring more than third fourth of the enemy kills with plain headshot while the rest were finished off by some more rounds coming from him. As the bodies littered the ground, while dirtying the ground with their blood, more zombies appeared from the building and were soon shot down by Henry alone, joining their dead friends. A deep loud growl came from one of the dark alleyway to his right. Turning his gaze and fixing his aim to his right side, the source of said growl reveals itself into the light. Its seemingly fat and tall appearance is already enough to tell Henry the category of the undead in front of him. The zombie in front of him wears what looked like a bloodied plain white t-shirt under a bloodied huge apron while wielding a rusty butcher knife in its hand.

" **[Bloaters]** , huh? Eat some of this!"

Henry took out a **[M48 UHE Grenade]** from his back pack and threw it in front of the charging **[Bloater]** that had its hand in the air, preparing to strike him with its butcher knife. He shots a couple shot into the **[Bloater]** 's leg, staggering its advance and making it fell on top of the grenade he threw just moments earlier. Before the big undead could even TRY to get up, the grenade explodes violently, blowing the said undead into a huge bloody pulp while throwing all of its intensities everywhere.

 _ **ROAR!**_

A sudden attack from his left caught him off guard which resulted in him being sent flying back about 4 to 5 meters away. His body was enveloped by a sudden wave of pain coming from his left side. Henry got onto his feet while staggers a little from the sudden shockwave that shook him to the core and glared at his attacker. The very first thing he noticed is a big riot shield with the word 'Police' written in the middle of it. Several sharp and bloody spikes protruding from the smooth surface of the shield as it blocked his view from his attacker. As whatever is holding the shield erect removed the shield down, Henry saw the undead that bashed him with its shield. **[Shielder]** , is a nickname that was given to zombies that once worked as the authorities but was infected by the virus and turned into a zombie.

The **[Shielder]** screeches loudly as more and more zombies came out from nearly all alleyways around him while they charged full-speed toward him. Henry cursed out loud as he grabs his dropped LMG from the ground, unattached the silencer, while wincing a bit since his left side is all itchy and starts to blind-fire the zombies around him. Many toppled over as the bullets passes through their nimble body while some managed to bypass all the bullets coming towards them just by the slightest inch. As the wave became too close for comfort, Henry took hold of four **[M48 UHE Grenades]** and threw it at four separated directions before taking hold of the forward end of his LMG while holding it like a baseball bat above him. This is the last possible effort that The SAS Corporation trained their soldiers to do; Close range combat, either empty handed, or with proper melee weapons, or just use the butt of your gun and smash it against the enemy's skull.

He feels as if time slows down around him. When the grenade went off, it will help him to gain some breathing space to move around so he won't be completely overrun by them, but once the undead hears the explosion, they would be coming in this direction to investigate and possibly hunt him down.

"…"

" **I regret nothing** _ **.**_ "

 _ **BOOM – BOOM – BOOM – BOOM!**_

A **[Runner]** attempts to slash his head off but was met by the cold end of a **[Ronson LBM]** owned by Henry, sending it flying away from Henry with a broken skull as it screeches in pain. Two **[Stalker]** attempt to do the same thing but Henry ducked under their attacks which resulted in the two zombies to slash each other's faces off, one ended up with no jaws as streams of rotten blood spurting out of it as it fell lifeless to the ground while the other only suffers a huge gash on its bare chest, to which Henry responded by bashing its face from the side, making the zombie's head turned violently as its neck snaps from its proper position. Leaving the gurgling **[Stalker]** on the ground as it chokes in its own blood, Henry professionally did a swift swap on his hold from the muzzle of his LMG to its stock, and swings his LMG in swift deadly 180-degrees turn as it slaps a **[Shambler]** that managed to sneak its way behind him. The **[Shielder]** that bashed Henry earlier tried to bash him for the second time, but Henry side-steps its swing and planted the entire magazine he has in his LMG into its body, leaving it completely mangled as it fell lifeless on the ground while creating a pool of blood. Henry picks the empty magazine and threw it to the head of another **[Runner]** in front of him, stunning the said runner as it slows down in its track. He uses this change to drive the muzzle of his LMG THROUGH the **[Runner]** 's throat, and effortlessly threw the zombie to another one, making the said zombie fell down as it receives the weight of its dying friend.

"Fuckin' glad they trained my strength!" He exclaimed after seeing his, more or less, successful body-throw before impaling another **[Runner]** in its chest before firing his LMG a couple times before pulling out his LMG's muzzle, letting the undead fell to the cold ground.

He notices that his moving space are starting to get a little cramped, so he forces his way through several zombies by smacking the zombies out of his way with the butt of his gun. He managed to get to a clearer spot to move around, but of course, he knew that it won't last for long as the zombies followed his movement. Henry begins to hip-firing his LMG again in hope to take out some of the zombies so they won't run him down in a close quarter combat. About 13 zombie kills later, Henry swings the LMG with such force that he managed to bash three zombies head at once, making them piled on the ground. He then slung the **[Ronson LBM]** behind his back swiftly and pulls out his **[Ronson 45]** pistol before taking hold of a **[Stalker]** 's throat while lifting it from the ground in the process, stopping it in its track, before he shot down the other three **[Shamblers]** behind it. Shooting the zombie in his hold on the head, Henry spotted several more **[Shielders]** among their ranks and snaps several shots at three of them which killed them instantly with headshots.

" _Those shield loving bitches are going to be a pain in the ass if not taken care off quickly._ " Henry thought to himself before shooting two more zombies heads' at point blank range.

Clearing the remaining zombies alive around him, Henry thought that it was already over, but he was so wrong. Several loud screeches erupted from the factory behind him where he just came out of.

"There are still more of them?!" He complains while breaking another **[Shambler]** 's nose that tried to bite his neck from behind by simply bashing it with the back of his palm like a boss.

Glancing all around him, there is no means of cover out here. If he wants to take out these hordes, he will need a place where they won't be spreading too widely so he could use the penetration power of his gun to the fullest. With that set in his mind, Henry rushed into the next building. Running down many hallways that were still a little bit too wide to deploy his LMG where it could be used to its full capability. At this point, he didn't paying any form of attention to his HUD's map anymore except sprinting down every hall way he encounters while hoping that the next one would be less wide than before. To his dismay, he didn't found any after running around for more than one minute already. It doesn't sounds too long, but when you're being chased by a horde of undead? Yeah, no thanks.

"ISAC, is there any place that is not too wide enough for me to use my LMG?!" He said as he ran outside of the building into what looked like an artificially made park in the middle of industrial complex.

" _Scanning for location…_ "

"Hurry ISAC. I could hear those faggots coming here fast!"

" _Location detected. It is inside of a power plant nearby to the East. Readings states that our possible survivor is locked up inside a laboratory room in the power plant area._ "

"East?" He let his eyes wander toward the general direction of East is, and to his dread, it was the direction where the hordes are located. "ISAC, you've got to be kidding me!" Henry face palmed mentally.

" _ISAC is not telling the contractor a joke at the moment._ "

Now he face palmed both mentally AND physically.

"Fuck this shit, I only live once." Henry then charged toward the undead horde while hip-firing his LMG once again. But this time, with the intention of clearing a path for him to push through the horde instead of clearing them. He could handle the rest of the horde later, for now, he need to go and find that damned power plant.

After mowing down quite a number of undead and bashed his way through the horde, Henry sped up to the fastest running speed he could get to get away from the horde, knowing that he needed a little time to deploy his **[Ronson LBM]** before he would hold the line.

Running for about 200 or so meters to the front, he could make a small outline of a building in the distance when he squinted his eyes while protecting them from the sands using his hand. Estimating the distance to be about another 300 meters, Henry decided to use his pistol to take down any zombies he encountered on his way there. Better to take out the small fry than letting them link up with the rest and causing trouble, he thought to himself.

It took him some times to get there, but he actually made it. To his surprise though, the entrance to this power plant were not like what he expected. He expected something along the line where a big square area to be fenced off and a big ass building here. But he was met by a small fenced off area with concrete floor while four guard towers were built around each corner of the area. There are several huge metal beams, wooden planks and other construction materials stacked up out here, but no power plant building. Instead of a building, he spotted a small stairway at the center of this place leading to the underground area.

"Underground power plant, huh? These engineers got some weird shit goin' on here." Henry said while holding the urge to sweat drop.

The hordes are starting to catch up, so Henry decided to camp the stairway, since it's was quite a tight squeeze that will only fit for 2 people going up and down if they are standing side by side.

When the hordes are close enough for him to use his LMG, Henry managed to take down about a total of 40 infected before he was forced to move from his position at the stairway.

"ISAC, try to scan this entire area and map them out for me. Count the estimated number of these faggots behind me too will ya'?" Henry requested to his device as he trudged down the stairs swiftly as he was skipping 2 steps at once.

" _Affirmative. Scanning is underway…_ "

When he set his foot at the bottom of this staircase, he made some distance between him and the end of the stairs. Grabbing any nearby objects he could find, he made himself a small defensive line to stop the zombies from advancing further. He toppled a vending machine over and placed it vertically again right in the middle of the hallway and stacked a couple of tables on either side while blocking the top side of those tables with any available dormant miscellaneous items around him. It was quite a heavy work, but he managed to do it fast with a cost of spending his **[Energy]** points almost entirely. After the makeshift barricade was erected, Henry pulled out his **[Ronson LBM]** and set the bipod that came with the gun ajar before placing it on top of the vending machine. He was not THAT tall, so he used a chair to lift him to a comfortable height for shooting.

" _Alert: Incoming wave of hostiles detected from the stairway. Estimated over 100 hostiles approaching. Possible enemy ambush from behind level is high. Placing automated turrets are recommended._ "

Henry breathes a small sigh as he went down from the chair and swiftly placing two **[HVM Heavy Machine Gun Sentry]** behind him on each side of the corridor to take out any zombies that might come to him from behind and placed a single **[HIK Heavy Protector]** on top of the vending machine beside him to assist him in taking out the incoming horde.

Soon, he could hear the cries of the zombies from where he was standing as the voice filled the stairway. Henry cocked the LMG while cracking both of his knuckles in preparation to welcome his 'unwelcomed' guests.

A lone **[Runner]** appeared from the stairway and stopped dead in its track when he sees the makeshift barricade Henry made while seeing two gun muzzles aimed at him while the stairway is still loud with zombie's cries.

"?" Henry raised his eye brow in confusion as to why do the **[Runner]** came by itself.

The **[Runner]** charged at him, and at the same time, the entire horde came raining down the stairway like how a tsunami wave would.

"!" Henry pulled the trigger in alarm as if there would be tomorrow as his gun gave the hordes a shower of deadly hot lead.

'That guy is waiting for his friends! WTF! OMG!'

* * *

The once quite corridor was now filled with living bullets and the loud sound of gun fire as empty ammo chasings littered the ground around a wooden chair where a lone SAS Mercenary are standing tall while occasionally pulling the trigger of his light machine gun. Many undead bodies littered the corridor ground either on the opposite side of the SAS Mercenary and the ones behind him. The undead have been appearing one by one through the small entrance of this corridor from a stairway of this underground power plant structures without any sign of stopping anytime soon. The undead keep on charging at him relentlessly, only to be shot in the span of less than 5 seconds later on. The mercenary's gun muzzle is smoking hot while it glows an orange hue from a constant non-stop firing. The once white corridor in front of him was now coaxed with blood. So many dead bodies filled the hall as they bathe in their own pool of blood while some of the corpses were missing their limbs and some of their intensities were spewed across the cold floor. The same could be said for the corridor behind the man. The two turret that the man placed before hand has their own fill for the fun. As the undead that resides in this abandoned power plant hears the cries of their comrades being slaughtered by the sound of machine gun fires, they make their way here in a rush, but only to be taken down by the turrets watching over the mercenary's back.

"God damn it, there's no end of them! I thought you said there would only be a hundred of them? Oi, ISAC!" Henry hollered loudly at his device in his left wrist amongst the loud sound of gun fire and the zombie's dying screams.

" _Theories: It is possible that the horde attract many smaller groups of hostiles from the industrial complex we've passed._ " The male-voice from the device came to his ears.

"No shit Sherlock bruh. Say, ISAC, do you have any idea?"

" _According to the radar, there are not much hostile signatures detected above the ground. The contractor could choose to either abandon this defensive line, throw a_ _ **[Zombie-Antidote]**_ _bomb that is unique to your SAS Classes, or to hold the line._ "

"Copy that. I'll throw my gas bomb out then. The turret can finish the rest. Scan the entire power plant structure to locate any remaining hostile and find out the location of our survivor just to make sure." He said as he took down another batch of zombies coming towards him.

" _Affirmative._ "

With that said, Henry slips his hand inside his 'specialized' utility belt, which is designed only for The SAS Mercenaries to use, that was strapped safely around his waist this entire time and took out a purple colored smoke grenade with glowing purple stripes around the top and bottom of the bomb while a small glowing purple symbol of two crossed syringe shaping an 'X' was engraved at the center. Pulling the pin out of its place, Henry threw the bomb towards the center of the horde. After the bomb let several 'beeping' sounds, the bomb exploded into a thick layer of purplish smoke that engulfed the entire corridor in front of him as loud dying screams of agony that the undead lets out could be heard throughout the hallway.

"The **[Zombie-Antidote]** active ability. Only designed for Medic-Class SAS and it could be devastating for any zombies that dares to touch it. Capable to last for quite a long time, which is around 15 minutes MINIMUM, and the time could be increased if a medic were willing to dedicate a lot of time to develop them." Henry muttered to himself.

He sighted loudly while he toss away the empty magazine and exchange it with a fresh one. "This is one of those times where I'm glad I developed this bomb so hard that it could last for half an hour. Good thing I was used to use this bomb as last resort." Henry folds back the bipod of his **[Ronson LBM]** back to its former place and slings the LMG back to his shoulder. "Better get moving."

" _Alert: Map data has been collected. Transferring to contractor's HUD now. Readings indicates that our possible survivor is still locked within a laboratory room._ "

"That guy is still there? What, did he barricaded himself in there?" He wondered out loud. It's not like he was complaining anyway, considering he could bash down an iron door that was locked from the inside with little effort. He's just amazed at the thought of how long that person has survived. Not many people are capable of doing such feat if he takes the fact that most people died as soon as they found themselves in the middle of dead zone into account.

Shaking the thought away, he followed the direction his HUD showed him. He turned right and goes forward for about two more corridors before he turned to the left. After some 5 more corridors, the HUD showed him that he needs to go down the stairs on the next corridor to reach the next floor. Then, he passed by a big hall that seemed to be used as a meeting room for the crews that worked here once. Exiting the hall, he turned left and down a couple more stairs before he spotted a sign above him. It reads, "Research and Development Complex".

Henry snorted, holding his laughter in his stomach. "Who would actually build an R&D in a power plant complex?"

Entering the small underground complex, Henry spotted many rooms widely spreaded throughout the area, making him confused as to which one of these rooms are the one that houses the survivor he was looking for. But after putting a bit more effort in finding any traces left by the survivor, he notices that the room around the middle section of this area was blockaded from the inside. Well, if the objects behind the see through glass panel of the door were not clear enough. He smirked inwardly while muttering to himself. "Bingo."

He knocked on the door's glass panel while asking, "Sir/ma'am? Anybody in here? This is The SAS Corporation Mercenary soldier. Could you let me in?"

Nothing came out from the survivor inside the room.

" _Report: It appears that whoever is inside the room is still alive. Either the person cannot speak caused by a certain circumstances, or is deliberately ignoring you._ "

Henry clicked his tongue in annoyance. He already wasted enough time handling the zombies while trying to get to this person inside the room, and now whoever is in here are planning to waste more of his time? Not happening, he still has to locate those important cargos the Z-Arm Tech asked him to find.

"Look, whoever is in there, you better open up quickly. I'm on a mission, so if you're not cooperating, I will blast the door myself ya' hear?"

A tick mark appeared on his head as no answers came from the door. Having enough bullshit to deal with for the day, Henry made his point clear to the person on the opposite side of the door by cocking his **[Ronson LBM]** loudly. Although it sounds normal for him, but in reality, the cocking sound was so loud that whoever is on the opposite side could hear the sound clearly. This scares the person enough to let out a loud 'Eeep!' in return.

" _O-o-okay! I'll uhh- I'll open the door, j-just… don't shoot me!_ "

Hearing a panicked female voice, Henry let his gun down, but still holding on to it just in case, while noting down that whoever is inside is a girl. He waited patiently while listening to a lot of sounds coming from various things being moved from the other side of the door, clearing a path for him to enter without a hitch. Making sure that nobody is around to sneak up on his ass later on, he went inside the room and closed the door behind him.

What greeted him inside is a young girl, perhaps around ten to twelve that stands at the height of his waist, with a long slick black hair adorned with a simple black headband that almost blends together with her hair if one wasn't paying attention. Glistening emerald eyes that were wide open in a mixture of terror and fear at the sight of Henry who is still holding on to his gun and smooth looking tanned skin. She is wearing a dirtied, if not tattered, gown with all those tears and cuts on her clothing while a pair of worn down shoes adorned her feet. She has a lot of bruise and cuts all over her body, while also covered in a lot of dust and filth which adds more weight to how heart clenching condition she was in.

Henry couldn't help but raises his eyebrow in great confusion under his combat helmet and gas mask covering his facial expression. What the hell does a kid still doing here? Isn't she supposed to be evacuated along with every other civilian in the last rescue operation? Does the bunker know about this? So many questions linger in his mind, but he can't let this surprising discovery got in his way. The young girl is still here, it's his job to protect her with his live because that is what he was trained for.

"Hey kid, what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be evacuated along with the others a week ago?"

"I-Uhhh… Umm- I… d-d-wha…" The young girl stuttered her words, causing Henry's eyebrow to even rise further.

He notices that the girl looked like she was having a nervous breakdown while pointing meekly at his **[Ronson LBM]**. "Hmmm? Oh! Uhhh, sorry kid, didn't mean to scare ya'" He said while switching the safety of his LMG on and slung it back to his back, while the girl let out a sigh of relief.

"Anyway, with my gun out of the way, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be evacuated out of this planet since a week ago." He repeated the question.

"Y-yes sir… Umm… I… I was…"

' _She's shy_ ' was what Henry thought to himself, seeing the little maiden in front of him. But when the girl broke down into a small fits of sobs out of the blue, Henry was struck by an arrow to his heart. ' _Gagh! She's too pure!_ '

"H-hey, what's wrong little fella? Did I do something wrong?" He tried to ask while failing to keep his composure at the sudden turn of event.

"N-no s-s-sir… It's just t-that… I was g-going back to m-my living quarters when th-th-the evacuation is under way… b-b-but… W-when I got back… p-pa-papa… mama… everyone… t-they…" She tried to tell him but broke down into a cry at the last moment where she buried herself in Henry's chest. Seeking a warm and the most comfortable place she could find to spill her tears out.

For Henry however, it doesn't take a fool to know where her story will end.

' _She was too late to get back to be evacuated and was left alone in this planet?! Wow, that must've been sucked ten-folds._ ' He thought to himself as he wraps his muscular arms around the young maiden's figure who are crying her eyes out while rubbing his hand at the back of her head in order to comfort her. Looking back a little bit, he saw that the barricade this girl made earlier was only a bunch of chairs and smaller sized boxes that every normal kid could carry. But to survive a whole week alone is a very admirable act that he could respect a lot. Not everyone could do that feat.

"Shhhhhh….. It's okay. You're safe with me now." He said while continuing to rub her head to comfort her. When he felt that her crying is under control, he took hold of her shoulders and lifted her small chin to look directly at his eyes. "Look at me. I admire your capability to stay alive by yourself all this time. Cause I'll tell you what, you just coincidentally put some of my friends in shame by your feat, ya' know?"

"Is that… true, mister?"

"Why, it is kid. Not many people in the world could do that. Now that I'm here, I'm gonna need you to stick by my side and not to go too far away, okay? I need to complete my mission, and then we can go back to Aartis and get you back to your parents. How does that sound?"

The young girl smiled brightly at the idea of returning to her parent's embrace. She wiped her tears off her face and gives Henry her innocent smile of happiness. "Yes! Thank you so much mister!"

Another arrow struck into his heart. ' _Gah! Innocent moe-blob is so dangerous!_ '

"No problem. Now let's get out of here, shall we? The quicker we finish my mission, the quicker you'll get home." Henry said after he quickly regained his composure at the sudden _Kawaii Attack_.

"Yes mister!" The girl said as she was about to follow Henry's lead but refrains from doing so when she remembered something and turned around to the corner of the room, to which Henry notices too. "Ah!" She exclaimed as she picked something up.

She went back to Henry and flashes him a small blue dolphin plush. "Mister, I want you to meet Mr. Blue! He is a good friend of mine. He always sticks by my side when I am wandering around this place." Unconsciously, Henry formed a small smile under his gas mask at her antic while the girl turned her head to face the plush. "Mr. Blue, say hi to this good mister." She said while she used the dolphin plush's fin to wave a 'hi' to him.

Henry couldn't help but chuckle at the sight he's witnessing in front of him. A girl who survived for a week after being abandoned by the rescue team somehow still has her innocence intact. He kneels down to her levels while still wearing his smirk under his mask. "Hey there, little guy. This mister's name is Henry Duke. Nice to meet cha'." He said while he shook the plush's fin.

"My name is Amelia! Amelia Amanda, nice to meet you Mister Henry!" The once meek maiden now turned into an energetic little girl responded to his introduction, making him chuckle in amusement once more before straightening his back and offered his hand for Amelia, which she took gleefully.

At the corner of his eyes, he spotted 2 huge canisters that were made from some sort of metallic material being placed on each corner of the room, and they are connected to a single terminal between the two of them that has a blinking green button on it.

He turned to Amelia and ushered her out of the room. "Amelia, could you please wait outside of the room for a bit? I want to check something out." He said to her to which she responded with a big nod before leaving the room.

Henry approached the worn down terminal while tapping on his ISAC device twice, as if poking someone to gain their attention, and the said device booted up back. "ISAC, what's with these two canisters? What are they doing here?"

" _Unknown. Analysis indicates that the canister tubes are made of strong titanium materials that have been modified to resist all sorts of damage, including heat, toxic, and radiation. It is suspected that the creator designed it in order to prevent any damage to whatever is contained inside. Lack of data prevents the making of further details._ "

"Oh… Then, what does this button do?" He asked while pointing at the green button that had been blinking non-stop.

" _Unknown._ "

Without much thinking, Henry pressed the green button out of pure curiosity. Usually, something are bound to happen right away, but after waiting for a solid five minutes, nothing happened as the room was filled with utter silence while the button already ceased its blinking. Henry just shrugs his shoulder, thinking that probably whatever system that button triggered, it's probably just so old that it broke itself at one point and stopped working ever since.

"Um… Mister Henry?" Henry turned at the short black haired child who is peeking from the doorway. "May I ask what are you looking for?"

He simply shook his head while heading out of the room. "It's nothing important. Just checking out if the electrical system in this area is still fully functional is all." He lied blatantly to the young child. Although it gives him the slight feeling of guilt to lie at the face of such an innocent girl, he just don't have the heart to taint her pure heart with the filthy world they live in for now. Not as long as he knew that her parents might be worried sick for her return, so he would have to leave her under the care of her proper guardian. "Let's go, Amelia." He offered his hand to which Amelia took hold of as the two of them back track their way to the exit of the power plant.

But unknown to the SAS Mercenary, the spot where he just stood for five minutes after pressing the button are littered with two small pools of blood with two snake-like object with a sharp syringe-like end resting beside it, while small trail of fresh blood are seeping through his **[HVM Combat Boots]** and tainting the path they walked on with a small red trail. As for the two canisters inside of the room, they let out a faint machine whirring, and seconds later, they began to let out a thick column of steam.

 _ **PSSSSSSHHH…**_

* * *

The two of them, Henry, and the little maiden, Amelia, were talking amongst themselves as they made their way back to the exit of this underground power plant. Occasionally, Henry would shield Amelia's eyes to hide the dead corpses of all the zombies that littered the ground in their path. Occasionally too, Amelia would bury her face to Henry's tall figure whenever the later shielded the former's eyes, since the little girl cannot handle the sheer amount of grotesque just from looking at the corpses. It did not take that long to reach the same corridor where Henry fend off the entire hordes of zombies that is coming after him earlier. He concludes that he didn't wasted too much time on getting Amelia out of her hiding spot when he saw that the **[Zombie-Antidote]** gas is still floating around the corridor. While the corpses on the ground has piled up, forming a small stack of dead bodies that has no traces of bullet wound which means their death was caused by Henry's special ability bomb.

"Alright Amelia, I want to close your eyes for a moment, and do not open your eyes unless I said so, okay?" Henry said to her while he kneels in front of her. Amelia gives him a nod as she closes her eyes shut which causes Henry to smile once more. Henry lifts the small girl's frame and fragile looking body on top of his back as the girl used the piggy back ride style in response. After a small moment of the grown up man packing all of his turrets, that still has quite a number of ammo left in their ammo boxes which could be refilled once he return to the bunker he was assigned to, he transferred those turrets back into his ' _Secret Personal Inventory_ ' that could only be accessed by him alone, before fixing the girl's position on his back. He climbed over the chair before jumped over the toppled vending machine before he winced in disgust as he stepped on top of the dead corpses next to the makeshift barricade.

 _ ***SQUISH***_

' _Urgh… Disgusting.'_

"Hey kid, hold your breath for a bit."

Hearing Amelia taking a short breath of air and holding it in her lungs, he quickly went to the stairs before making sure that the stink smells are gone. And after making sure that there are no more dead bodies around, he turned his head to the side so he could get a small glimpse of her figure. "Okay, we're out from the building. You can breathe and open your eyes now."

When she let her eyes flutter open, she sees that they were already outside of the building. Henry let the girl down and gives Amelia a pair of protective mask and a goggle with blue colored visor. "Here, this should help you to avoid sand getting into your eyes and nose. I know it's a little oversized since it was not designed for kids your age, but this is better than nothing, yeah?" He said to which Amelia nods and took the mask and goggles from his hand. After putting them on, the protective mask shielded the lower half of her face while the goggles were a little loose, to which Henry helped her to tighten the goggles so that it fits her face perfectly. Now Amelia looks just like some other female SAS Mercenary on the field in a mission if not for her apparent young age and small frame. To the point where Henry let out a small whistle after noticing this and decided to compliment her looks. "Whew, if you were an adult, you would look just like any other female SAS Mercenaries you know? If to be combined with your dark colored schemed clothing, those mask n' a goggle fits you perfectly."

"Huh?! D-do you think it d-… does?" Amelia stammered at the sudden compliment from the adult man in front of her while she could feel a small rush of heat rising up to her cheeks.

"Well, style is not my forte, but hell yeah it does for me."

"O-oh… Th-thank you…" She replies while hiding her face in her palms as if the mask and goggle she was wearing was not enough.

Henry raised his eyebrow in confusion but shrugged the weird act off, thinking of it as nothing as he offered his hand once more to the child. "Anyway, let's go. We better hurry up."

"Ah, okay!"

Linking their hands together, they set off toward the coordinates that tells them exactly of where to go to next.

Several moments have already been passed as the two made their way to the coordinates that ISAC have shown for Henry. On the way there, Amelia let out a small yawn which Henry took notice of.

"Are you tired?"

"H-huh? N-no! Not at all!" Amelia exaggeratingly said, failing to convince the older man as she let out another yawn to escape her lips at her futile attempt to resist her tiredness. He then decided to stop for a moment and gave the young girl a piggy-back ride so she could rest her head on his back, which the former do so without the later telling her to do so. Poor girl must've been gone through hell and back this past week, the man thought silently while watching as Amelia went straight to sleep in a matter of seconds.

It still impress him, no matter how many times it would take, at the thought of a twelve year old girl surviving in a planet infested with a massive number of zombies all by herself. Not to mention that aside from a few cuts and what not on her person while having her dress tattered which comes natural, if not surprising since he could overlook that fact, Amelia is in fact, more or less, still intact without getting infected. When he first met her back inside that room in the power plant, Henry secretly runs a small diagnostic scan on her to find out whether she was infected by the virus or not, and the result stated that she was not infected and was healthy, aside from both trauma and stress she had from her effort to stay alive this past week.

'Perhaps transporting her back to Aartis's survivor camp to reunite her with her parents might help her to relieve her trauma and stress. But if it didn't work, then I have no idea of what to do to her next.' He silently thought to himself.

Henry was well aware that it might sound weird, if not a ridiculous claim from him. Because when people mix in the fact that he was a **[Medic-Class]** SAS, it WILL sound weird coming from him since the terms MEDIC speaks for itself. Even Henry himself thought it was strange if he imagine himself as a normal civilian who doesn't know any better at the thought for a **[Medic]** that didn't know how to treat a traumatized patient. But well… he was a combat-medic type to begin with. And bitch, he ain't no psychiatrist. Combat-medic type SAS ain't-got-no-room for treating traumatized soldiers. Their main focus is to dive headlong into a hot hellfire that we call as 'Warzone' and 'Battlefield' in search for injured soldiers to patch them up so they could keep fighting, and when the Combat-Medic SAS didn't find any injured allies around them, they will pull out their guns and start dumping all ammunitions they had at the enemy lines.

But there ARE people who dedicate themselves to become a full-fledged Support-Medic type of SAS where their main goal is to treat those who needed it the most, civilians or soldiers alike. Some of them also specialize in treating people who suffers from trauma and soldiers who suffers from PTDS. So if Henry wants to help Amelia, he will need to leave it to those Support-Medic folks. However, there is a certain… girl, that he had difficulties in the past that he could ask a favor for. But that problem could be solved later. Right now, he must focus on the task at hand.

After some times of silence trudging through this empty vast desert plains while silently listening to the sleeping child's heartbeat, he reached the position where he came from earlier. The exit of the underground passage he found when he was taking shelter from the sandstorm earlier. (Remember?)

"Help me out here ISAC." Muttering silently to his device, ISAC let out a small series of engine hums.

" _Affirmative, switching shown coordinates._ "

Listening to the sound of ISAC's small engine hums, Henry took notice of the new marker that appeared inside his built-in HUD radar. Using his 'Range-Finder' function that was programmed into his HUD, it occurred to him that his primary objective location is a mere half a mile away from here. It could be considered as pretty close if you think about how many days he have wasted to WALK here thanks to a certain rookie pilot who forgot to refuel his drop off shuttle which leads to him being dropped FAR away from his primary objective. Henry fixed his grip on Amelia's sleeping form on his back while grumbling several curses about the rookie's klutziness to himself as the unfortunate memories comes back to him, before he walks away. When he reached the areas where the ground was made of concrete and cement, which is another industrial complex area, Henry made sure that he didn't go to fast, but not too slow either. Most importantly however, he kept his noises down. He… or more like, _nobody_ would ever want to attract unnecessary attention from zombies whether you're alone or not. But when you're carrying a helpless girl who is sleeping on your back, you definitely want to be more extra careful.

He successfully avoided unnecessary detection from several isolated groups of zombies on the way. As he was getting close to his destination while the sandstorm still rages around him even in this industrial complex areas (though not too violently), Henry spots an outline of a large building ahead.

" _Alert: You are now nearing your primary objective area._ "

"Mark out all the cargo I need to retrieve and scan for a location where the transport shuttle could land."

" _Affirmative, marking on map._ "

As soon as ISAC finishes its sentence, the pinpoint mark that was once located above the building ahead of him disappears and was replaced with several separated pinpoint marks spreaded all around the building. Then, another lone marking with a pulsing indicator appeared somewhere around 200 meters to the West.

" _Alert: A suitable landing pad for contractor's pickup shuttle is located nearby. Reporting the location to the pickup shuttle is advised._ "

Henry just nods his head in confirmation. "Alrighty then, let's get this shit done already." He cracked his knuckles carefully not to wake the sleeping girl on his back by accident. He arrives in front of a large warehouse with concrete walls that was painted with white paint with red tiled roof. No windows, the walls are all worn down, and the heavy looking double doors made of thick wood reinforced by a layer of metal beams that was blasted away from its original place made the warehouse looks kind of creepy. Not to mention several dried splats of blood painting some parts of the walls too. God only knows how long this warehouse has been abandoned since the infection took place.

Scanning for any signs of hostile in the area, he readied his **[Ronson 45]** pistol in his left hand (He IS a left-hand user) while keeping a steady hold on the sleeping Amelia as she is still fast asleep. Once he was inside, Henry could get a better understanding as to why he was told to find those Z-Arm Tech cargos here.

Whatever is the name of the industrial company that owns this warehouse in the past must've been one of the richest ones around. Because no matter where he looks, this warehouse is filled to the brim with tons of high end gears, equipment, and materials. For once after a long time, his eyes were filled with stars at the thought of being able to own all of this stuff. He could've even sworn that his mouth is watering a bit. But then again, all of these good looking loots are old, if not outdated. So much for that, but there is no use he could get out of these junks. After resting the sleeping Amelia on a small stack of soft fabric nearby, he went to check on a huge pile of supply creates being stacked neatly at the corner of the room. He could easily recognize an accessible loot containers or just plain supply creates like these ones from miles away since they always had a pad lock on them.

He played around with his ISAC device on his wrist while standing near the supply create stacks, and after he typed down the last line of command code on the device, all of the pad locks that was attached to the creates in front of him unlocks at the same time, including the creates itself.

Inside all of these creates were what looked like a whole lot of miniature sized Metal Alloys. These specifically made Metal Alloys are manufactured to be turned into a weapon or armor pieces that is made to be used by SAS Mercenary only. The government has made it so that the rules will restrict any unauthorized military or non-military related company from using these Alloys. Not only that, in order to use these Metal Alloys, a specifically made equipments and machinery is required too, and every bunker that rightfully belong to the SAS Corporation are the only one who has them, which means that no civilians or military organization could use them at their leisure. But the thing about these Metal Alloys is that it was very difficult to be manufactured, thanks to the component that was mixed in these Alloys. They would need a steady stream of iron, aluminum, steel, and titanium matter to be manufactured.

" _Alert: Large amount of Metal Alloys have been acquired by the contractor. Proceeding to store the Alloys into the contractor's personal safe vault._ " Suddenly, ISAC displayed a large net of hologram screen filled with numerous floating computer codes that keeps appearing and disappearing out of sight. A few seconds later, every Metal Alloys inside the supply cache begins to glow a bright green hue before disappearing completely in a blinding green flash. Soon enough, everything vaporized from its normal form to thin air just in a matter of second. That is when a small hologram screen appeared in front of the man.

* * *

 _ **Metal Alloy Cache Acquired**_

 _ **Amount: 5700**_

 _ **Loot(s) Condition: Old, Rusty**_

 _ **Estimated renewal fee: 22.800 SAS Dollars**_

 _ **[Confirm]**_

* * *

Henry could feel a small tick of sweat drop going down the side of his face when he read what was written in the hologram panel before him.

' _The cost to polish all of those Metal Alloys back to its former pristine self is 22.800 SAS Dollars?! That's like four bucks for each Alloy!_ '

Finally, with a bit of a heavy heart, Henry taps the 'confirm' button, making the hologram panel to blips out of existence. He couldn't help the urge to sight heavily at the misfortune that befalls him today. "Damn it, there goes my 23 grand." But then again, those Metal Alloys are going to worth a lot more than his 23 grand if it was used to make weapons and armor pieces instead of buying a new one. Because the quality you could get by crafting new equipment from the Metal Alloys is not something anybody could get at times like these. If the metals were to be molded into weapon components, and then was made into a whole new weapon, it would rarely break either under normal or extreme conditions.

Remember that **[Ronson LBM]** that Henry loved to carry around? Those guns are one of many examples that are available. Having been made from the finest materials available, Henry never had a problem with his guns breaking or malfunctioning in the middle of a mission before. Even when he used the gun itself as a makeshift baseball bat to bash his enemy's skulls to kingdom come, it just never breaks or stop working. So, the point of _'resistant to extreme condition'_ could be added too.

Anyway, with nothing left for him to do after another thorough search in case if he missed any loot, he decided to wrap things up around here and contacted his pick up transport shuttle.

Pressing down a small button on the built-in earpiece of his helmet, he managed to get a hold of his transport shuttle. "This is **[Chief Field Surgeon]** Henry Duke to transport unit 502, do you read me?"

A small moment of buzzing that he suspect comes from the transport pilot that is trying to contact him back, Henry was in for a small world of surprise. "This is transport unit 502, we hear you loud and clear Chief."

Henry's eyebrow rose at the voice of a familiar person to him. "The heck? Carrel? What are you doing all the way out here?"

"Oh, well… meh, the rookie pilot who dropped you off some days ago was punished by the **[Vice Commander]** when he found out about the rookie's mistake. I heard from the other pilots around that he was grounded for a whole week ever since." His friend 'Carrel' spoke out nonchalantly, causing the medic to wince at his pilot's misfortune.

"Oooof… I pity that boy."

"Don't be Chief. I don't think you should be feeling bad about him. If that kid wanted to work as one of us SAS's, then he gotta deal with our high standard. Cuz if he failed to do so, he can just kiss his bloody ass goodbye."

"Well, yeah I know about our high standard and all that. But he was just a greenhorn Carrel. Give him some slack wouldn't hurt."

Henry listens as a small sigh escaped Carrel's lips from the other side. "Look, Henry. I understand where you're coming from, and honestly, I kind of agree with your way of thinking, okay? But this ain't no peaceful world we once live in the past. There is no way for a guy to survive in the bloody field when he is working as one of the SAS mercenaries. That kid never went through hell and back like the two of us and some others did at _'that'_ time. So don't get your hopes up too much about the kid getting any mercy from the **[Vice Commander]**."

"Ugh… Carrel-"

"No means no, Chief. Don't forget, I was participating in that hell of an operation too, and I am proud to tell anyone I met that we had went through hell and back at that time. Not to mention you saved my sorry ass by activating that nuclear antidote bomb. Possibly the lives of everybody else that is still alive at that point."

"Enough, Carrel!" Henry snaps into the earpiece out of the blue, silencing the speaker on the other side. "You can go ahead and tell everybody that I went through lots of shit in that op, but you keep your mouth shut about me detonating that nuke when I'm around, you understand me?" Not hearing any further response but sensing that the comms are still up and running, he continued, "My squad covered my fuckin' neck Carrel, and they're the one who paid the price… My. Fuckin'. Squad… so quit your rant about me being the hero of the day. Henry out."

Cutting the comms abruptly, he cracked his knuckles while turning around to face all the cargo boxes that were stored inside the warehouse. "Let's just get this done."

* * *

 _About an hour later…_

"And down you go!"

 ***BANG***

The huge cargo landed on top of the other cargo with a loud banging sound of metal being clashed by metal as Henry let go of his hold on the cargo. He stretched his back as it let out a satisfying 'pop'. "That's six down, three more to go." Muttering to himself, he made his way back to the place where he lay Amelia down to check up on her, wondering if the later is still asleep despite the loud banging he caused when moving the cargos around. As he took the last turn, the sight of several stacks of white sacks containing unknown stuff to him came into view, but no sign of the child he was looking for.

"Huh?!" Henry exclaimed loudly as his eyes began to scan around the place frantically in search for the said girl, with a large question mark floating above him.

' _Where did she went off to?! Ah, this is bad! If she gets injured or even worse, infected, how the eff am I going to explain it to her parents?!_ ' He thought frantically while lifting everything around the place, including ones that was not supposed to be lifted by normal human beings, in a comical fashion. But a sudden movement at the corner of his view however, managed to catch his attention, and when he snaps a glance at whatever it is, he caught a small glimpse of Amelia's dress fluttering away at the corner of this warehouse's door.

"Hoy, Amelia! Get back here, now! It's dangerous outside!" He sprinted for the door in hope to catch up with her. But when he turned around the corner, he saw three figures standing not too far away from the door. One of them is Amelia, but the other person is, more or less, a new face for him.

...

Correction… the other two GIRLS, standing beside Amelia is a new face for him. And they are currently looking back at him.

The first girl looks like she was around her twenties. Her slightly pale skin looks so smooth as if it was being tended with the utmost care, but her sparkling, yet sharp blue eyes glared at him like a predator would against its prey. Her ridiculously long grey hair (as in cement themed grey) was tied into a double tail that still reaches down to her bottom with bangs covering her left eye. A small sign of an eye patch she wore for her left eye poking out from her said bangs too.

She wore a dark grey swimsuit that threatens to cause a nosebleed for Henry if it's not for what he presumed as a custom cargo jacket that was made to fit her slim and curved figure perfectly, even though she seemed to be not zipping the jacket up by purpose. She had a pair of same colored stockings covering her legs up to her mid thigh section and what looked like a mechanical looking shoes/boots (?). Her fingerless gloved hands are holding a big-ass cannon with a hand grip installed resembling the grip of a portable minigun in movies that looked like some sort of tank turret (muzzle? I dunno), and it was pointed at him. The 'turret' itself is so huge to the point where Henry could remember the last time he saw a **[Heavy-class]** SAS carrying one of those grenade launchers that spelled 'Fuck You!' to their opponents.

The second girl looks like she was the same age as the first one. Her shoulder length blond hair was tied down into double pigtails with red colored ribbons as they softly waving around when another gush of wind passed by. Her weirdly dark teal-colored eye that was filled with slight curiosity is eyeing him up and down.

She wore a light brown sleeveless sweater with red ribbon on the collar section, that acted as both shirt and 'pants' for she doesn't seem to be wearing any 'pants' as far as Henry concerns, but her sweater is a little bit too short for his comfort since he could almost see her 'pantsu' even from this safe distance. Some sort of utility belt crossed her stomach from her left, down to her hips on the right. She also wore matching brown colored stockings that reached up to her mid thigh with a white star symbol inside a white circle at its end, and weird looking shoes with miniature tank wheels and threads strapped to its side. Beside her left and right hips, she has what Henry assumed as the tank thread chasings that has the same star inside a circle symbol on its side. Her palms were protected by a pair for clean white gloves that looked as if it was still brand new and a small tattoo that reads 'M4 Sherman' on her right shoulder. Finally, a small, oval shaped thing came up from behind her shoulder. It looks like some sort of miniature of a tank turret… and it was pointing his way!

'Oh…'

"Enemy sighted! Don't let him get to Amelia!"

'-SHIT!'

 ***BOOM!***

An explosion erupted from where Henry once stood. Snapping back to reality when the silver haired girl bellowed to her friend, he managed to take about two steps away from his original position before a miniature AP round smashed the ground beside him. The explosion sent him flying for about ten feet away before landing with a loud 'thud'. A sudden rush of adrenaline flows through his vein as he trashed himself back up and he ran back into the building, while dodging another two rounds of AP shells sent to his direction at a neck breaking speed.

"Fuckin' Christ!" He propels himself to dive into the cover of the warehouse's wall beside the door way.

"Zoe-san, Evelyn-san! S-stop it!" Amelia panicked while tugging on Zoe's jacket to gain the later attention, but unfortunately, her plea fell on deaf ears.

"Amelia-chan, please stand back. I have a feeling that he was dangerous." Zoe replies while pushing the child back away gently.

"Y-you've misunderstood! That person is-"

"There he is!" Evelyn cuts Amelia short as the former fires another shot of miniature AP shell at Henry's figure that are peeking slightly from the warehouse's doorframe, forcing him to yanks his head back into cover and let the shell misses him as it explodes across of him.

"No! Stop hurting him!" Amelia shouts at the sight of her new 'friend' being shot at without mercy by Zoe and Evelyn. But then again, her plea fell into deaf ears. This was proven by Zoe who loaded another AP round into her floating tank turret shaped 'pet' and unleashes another shot that scored a direct hit at Henry's last known hiding spot.

Amelia felt very weak, as she was forced to watch how her new friend being obliterated helplessly from the sideline with a horror filled eyes that were wide as a plate.

* * *

Unknown to the three standing outside of the warehouse, Henry had long since moved from his original spot which were now destroyed completely by Zoe's Armor-Piercing shell. But unfortunately for him though, he was not able to take his fourth step from his original spot before the shell blast its way through the concrete wall. So the explosion threw him out of his feet AGAIN while soaking him with tons of small white particles and dust from the explosion.

Struggling to get up with so much ringing noises, he knew that the close ranged blast managed to knock his hearing senses and the concussion effect is still too heavy for him to move properly. He forces himself to move back to sit beside the now destroyed doorframe while ignoring the painful ringing and concussion, he peeked from the corner to see that Zoe is ushering Amelia away to hide behind a thick tow cable roll. This triggers a small grin to appear in the man's facial expression, because with the child gone from his line of fire, he could have the freedom to rekt the other two.

"Heh…" Henry cocked his **[Ronson LBM]** once more before readying himself. "By leading the kid away from my line of fire will become your greatest mistake… if not the last!"

* * *

A sudden hailstorm of deadly projectiles smashed the two girls who are still standing in the open ground, making them an easy target. Even though most of the bullets that was aimed for them veered off course thanks for the shooters certain 'condition', some are still accurate enough to score several direct hits.

Evelyn, who are standing the closest to the SAS medic, and being the one who attacked the man first, gets the first dip of the meal. A sudden rush of pain caused by several bullets striking her forearm, legs, and near her shoulder blade caught her off guard which actually allows the attacker to plant more shots into her. Fortunately, due to the shooters 'condition' after the near miss blast, none of the bullets strikes home. While still lying with her belly on the ground, Evelyn watches on with a sweatdrop rolling on her side as all of these bullets missed her completely. 'Does he even know how to aim?' She thought while wincing a little from the pulsing pain across her body. 'Ugh… his gun packs quite a punch.'

"Evelyn-san! Are you okay?!" The voice that belongs to her companion, Zoe, snaps her out of her thought. She grabs a firm hold of her turret shaped gun that she dropped earlier and took off in a slow sprint, away from the incoming hailstorm of hot lead. Zoe then snaps a shot at the general direction of their attacker in hope to suppress him, if not hitting him, so that Evelyn could have some more time to run away. But her shot misses by a small margin and explodes violently near the door frame, but somehow, it only seemed to agitate their attacker more, as a new stream of fire came smashing Zoe's figure with a ruthless accuracy.

She shrieked loudly as she experienced a hellish pain all over her body before her legs gave out and let her fell to the ground. Evelyn could only watch in horror as her friend went down like a falling brick. The silver haired girl points her gun turret at the door and let another AP round flies away in pure rage at the downfall of her companion, before turning around to grab her friend and drag her off behind a large dumpster.

"Zoe, can you hear me? Please, wake up!" She shook her friend's limp body in order to snap her friend back to reality but no response came from her. "Zoe, wake up, please! Don't leave me behind!" Tears starts to swell in her reddening eyes, never had the courage to accept that her friend just left her. She brings Zoe's face closer to her figure and hugs her friend tightly, not wanting her friend to go away. "No… Please, Zoe… Don't you die on me…"

"Eve…"

"?!" Evelyn looked down to see Zoe looking back at her in her weak state.

"I'm sorry, Eve. I failed so badly."

"Shut up, don't tire yourself anymore! You're gonna be fine, I promise!" Evelyn shushed Zoe, having hope coming back to her that she still could save her friend.

"I'm… Sleepy… Eve."

Evelyn's eyes flew wide at the statement. "No, Zoe, stay awake! Don't sleep, okay? Whatever you do, just don't sleep!"

"I'm… Tired…"

"I said no, Zoe!" She shook her friend again, but shocked when she received no response.

"Zoe?" She shook her again… nothing.

"Zoe?!" She shook her again… still nothing.

Slowly, the realization hits her like a speeding train.

"No…" Hot tears went down her cheeks, cannot taking in the reality. "Zoe…"

 _ ***SCHACKHAK***_

Her eyes shots open and she looks up slowly. Standing beside Zoe's body, stood a tall and slightly muscular figure of a man. Nothing could describe how her heart tightens at the sight of him. The man was covered by white dust particles and blood splatters that sticks on to his armor-covered body. Evelyn couldn't see his face due to his face covered by the helmet that has no transparent visor to look through what so ever. But one thing is for sure, all light generating components of his armors are shining a bright red light, and his gun is pointing at her.

"No…"

The man took better aim where Evelyn could see the hole of his gun's muzzle.

"No way…"

 _ ***SMASH* *THUD***_

It was too fast for her to process, but the last thing she saw, is that the man moved so fast and violently before a solid object made contact at her side. On the process of blacking out, she could only see his iron boots standing inches away from her face.

After that, she enters the world of blackness.

* * *

 _ **There you go. It took quite a long time to adding some details bit I've finally done it. Even though I feel there are still some missing details, but it's done anyway. (Added the disclaimer and did some more editing too)**_

 _ **This might be a bit sudden, but this story will be replacing my FIRST fict, the "SAS 4 Zombie Assault: Another World". I have several reasons for that.**_

 _ **First, I do not have too many ideas on what to do and what to make with the world's setting (Economic, Religion, Races and ect).**_

 _ **Second, I feel like the story doesn't have any objective or path that would lead to a much bigger event, just the simple live of a group of SAS soldiers in fantasy world. Even the POV are somewhat were messed up.**_

 _ **Three, although I've been gaining some more people who read the story, including**_ **'ABuzzmann'** _ **and**_ **'attackonthings'** _ **who follows the story, not many people write down their reviews for my story in order for it to become better. I highly appreciate your time,**_ **ABuzzmann** _ **and**_ **attackonthings** _ **. Let me know what you think of the story and I hope you enjoy your day.**_

 _ **Anyhow, I will be focusing on this one for now. I'll see if there's anyone who request me to continue the other story and giving me some idea's for world setting or story line idea via reviews.**_

 _ **With all that out of the way, hope you enjoy this story. Let me know what you think! Any suggestion, ideas, request, criticism are welcomed warmly. If by any change you are familiar with Kancolle / Panzer Waltz or both, feel free to request any character that you want me to add to this fict.**_

 _ **Take care guys, and I'll catch you next time.**_


	2. The Way Home

_**Hey guys, and welcome back to my SAS 4 crossover! It's been a long time; I do need some time to finish this story since school took most of my time (My mood to write was desperately low too, so I ramp it up on weekend). But now that I'm here, I could finish the story little by little.**_

 _ **First things first, I would like to thank adityapratama for reviewing my story. Though it honestly was not the kind of review I wanted it to be, it's still one. Don't worry aditya, the shipgirls are coming soon. Sorry if it confuses you at the first chapter since I'm still new to this, but worry not, they will show up. That's why I put up 'SAS X Kancolle X Metal Waltz' in the first chapter's AN since I cannot put up to three crossover tags on my story.**_

 _ **With that said, hope you enjoy the story!**_

* * *

 **Chapter 2: The Way Home**

Her body felt weak. It feels that her head was spinning a little bit. She tries to move her body, but her muscle feels sore which made her stop. She could feel something thick and warm draped over her figure, making sure that she stays comfortable. Slowly, her ears perk up when she catches a noise. It was noisy… very noisy. Something was screeching against a metal surface, making that ear piercing sound. But suddenly, the sound stopped, but is soon replaced by two voices that sounds new to her. Listening carefully, she could hear… two different voices. They were somewhat a bit deep and gruff, possibly a man's voice. They were… talking about something. But she listens on as the two walked away.

Then, her heart jumped a bit when something wet was placed on top of her forehead. It's not cold, but it was warm. Someone else other than those two man's voice must've been taking care of her all this time. She didn't hear any loud sound of feet tapping against the floor, but she DO hears a faint shuffling every now and then. Another shuffle came from above her, convincing her that whoever is taking care of her, he or she, is still in the room with her.

After several more minutes of waiting, she manages to gather her newly recovered strength to open her eyes. It was blurry at first, but her vision fixes itself slowly. What she sees… is a grey ceiling with iron grips installed at the smooth surface of the metallic ceiling. Some dim light is seeping from the small gaps on the ceiling too, giving it a nice and calming view somehow. Looking to her side, there are two lines of huge cargo creates made out of steel and titanium being arranged neatly as two stack for each one. Counting them silently, there appears to be only 11 of them, somewhat giving her the idea that there must be a cargo remaining that have yet to be loaded.

"Ah, big sister Evelyn, you're awake!" Hearing the small voice, she shifted her gaze upwards to see Amelia, who is sitting above her head while holding a wet towel as a compress in her tiny hands.

"Amelia-chan." Evelyn smiled at the sight of her newly found friend. "Are you okay?" She tries to sit up, but does not have the strength to do so.

"Big sister Evelyn, you shouldn't move around too much yet! Even though Mister Henry had patched your wounds, he said that you still needs to rest to recover." Amelia exclaimed while stopping Evelyn from getting up and gently pushes her back down.

'Henry…' Evelyn thought silently. Something feels… familiar with that name. She feels that that name holds a certain position in her life. Not just any normal position, but… more like… she feels that the name is having the role of a 'leader' to her. Something is nagging at the back of her mind that this 'Henry' is holding a superior position than hers. Then, something came out from her mouth.

"The commander?"

"Eh?" Amelia tilted her head to the side, obviously confused at what Evelyn is getting at.

"Henry… The commander… _my_ commander." She repeats while doing that 'thousand yards stare' into the ceiling.

The young child pokes her shoulder to gain her attention. "Big sister Evelyn, are you okay? What is wrong?"

"Ah!" Evelyn snapped out of her trance as she realized what she had just done, which caused heat to rise into her face, making her face turns red. "I-it's nothing, I'm fine, Amelia-chan. I'm sorry that I worried you just now. I sort of… dazed out for a bit." She stuttered out, trying to convince the child that nothing is wrong. To her relief, it seems Amelia was convinced, because she let out a small huff of relief and smiles sweetly.

"That is good to hear. Amelia is glad that big sister Evelyn is okay." Amelia's smile invites a smile of her own somehow.

"Please, just call me Evelyn, okay?" She then remembered something important to her. "Wait, Amelia, where is Zoe?" Her words were filled with concern for her companion's well being.

Amelia simply puts a finger in front of her mouth. "Shhh… big sister Zoe is still sleeping. Mister Henry said that he finished patching her up and that she was on the other side of the room. He told me that she was sleeping like a sloth!" She whispered before giggling at the last part which Evelyn followed suit. Zoe? Sleeping like a sloth? She really wanted to see that badly if only she has the strength to walk.

A long silence occurs between the two of them. No sounds could be heard between them except for Amelia working on Evelyn's compress, just doing what she was told by Henry when Evelyn was still unconscious. Being the only child, a clueless child to top it around, Amelia begins humming some song softly while changing Evelyn's compress. The later smiled thankfully at the former. But for Evelyn is caught up with her own train of thought.

She was, more or less, stuck in the middle of both confusion and curiosity. Her mind wanders back to the time when she was still conscious. Being programmed as a tank girl in the first place, she has no problem when she tried to recall what had happened before she blacked out, unlike most people whose mind could be still hazy when they just woke up from being unconscious. Her vision showed her the sight of the man covered in a full armor clothing thing that she encounters. How she became hopeless and scared when her friend seemingly just falls dead in front of her. The sight of a gun muzzle pointed at her in a point blank range, but was knocked out cold instead of being shot by that man. There are so many memories flooding back into her vision.

If that man who defeated Zoe and herself would be her commander, then she would devote her live to serve him faithfully without questioning his orders. Because she had to admit, that man is a better fighter compared to her and Zoe combined. He had beaten them as a normal human after all. But the thought of being under the command of a weak man, who could do nothing but to order people around him while cannot even fend for himself disgust her. She'd rather be killed by that armor covered man with honor from before, rather than serving a scumbag like those people who 'barks and no bites'. Since being a tank girl means having better endurance, survivability in combat, and more abilities than normal average human, it is their duty to protect people. But between PROTECTING and being LEAD by such horrible person is a whole different matter. That is why, she resolved to find that armor clad man who beaten her before, and serve under his command if she found that this 'Henry' person is not to her satisfactory when all this predicaments is over.

 _ ***SCREEEEEEEEEE-***_

Hearing the loud sound of a large solid object being pushed around brings her out of her thought. Thanks to the amount of strength she recovered in a short amount of time as a tank girl, she was able to sit up straight with no problems now. Down at the back of this, what looked to be a cargo holding compartment for a ship, where the ramp is located, she spotted a large cargo create being loaded by one, possibly two, stranger who are pushing the cargo with lots of effort. At the moment, she could only see one of them due to the cargo blocking her view of the other person.

"God damn it," The man that she could see clearly from the side cursed while putting his best effort to push the thing into the ship(?) she is in. "These last two bloody cargo is much heavier than the rest! The hell is in here, rocks?!"

"Oh, shut the hell up! I'm suffering the same fate as you did!" The second voice piped up from beside the first man she could see. "Hell at this point, you're having it way more easy than me in this desert planet!" The man continued as they keep pushing the cargo into the room.

After a couple of awkward moments of Evelyn and Amelia watching the two pushing the cargo into the room, they finally got the job done.

The man in her sight, the one who started the cursing spree, is wearing a green colored helmet that protected his entire head with red see through visor. Adorning his well built body is a green body armor, with double red colored arrow stickers pointing upward on the chest area, protecting his entire figure, while leaving a small area around his stomach unprotected by most of its ceramic filled armor, but were protected by a layer of flexible red colored carbon with two straps safely attached to it. Green layers of armored leggings safely strapped on to his legs with red colored kneepads with green armored boots with some red colored part to finish the looks. Under all those body armor that Evelyn thought was pretty badass, is a standard issued **[Assault]** uniform with a **[Captain]** insignia attached to his left forearm, not like Evelyn knows the name of the military company that owns the uniform.

The **[Assault]** -class SAS who Evelyn were staring down at catches her smaller form. He motioned at her with his hand. "Hey look, Chief. The lassie is awake."

From behind the armor wearing man, came forth the second man who were loading the cargo just now, and Evelyn's eyes could barely register itself when he came into her view. From head to toe, the man was wearing a full set of armor that she thought was made from the strongest mineral she could imagine. The very same helmet with no see through visor for the man to look out from is sitting comfortable on his head. All of those shining light component sources that glow dimly in red colored hue are there too.

There is no mistaking it anymore. This man is the one who defeated her and her friend, Zoe.

"Well, look who it is." He approached her and bends down to equalize their heights so she was staring at his armor covered face while the first man went to do his own things. "How are ya' feeling, kid?" He said while taking off his armored gloves to check on her temperature by her forehead.

"S-still a bit dizy… Ummm…"

"Ah, right, my name is Henry Duke. But you could just call me Henry."

Something then snapped inside of Evelyn's head.

"C-commander?! Y-you are our commander?!" She stuttered loudly, still can't believe her eyes to know that the man in front of her, in fact, IS her commander. The very same man who she and Zoe fought, the one who defeated her, and the one who shows her mercy instead of finishing her off, is this man. The man, who she swore she would serve faithfully under his command, is him.

Henry, surprised at the girl's remark, could only tilt his head to the side. "What do you mean I'm your commander?"

"W-well, i-i-it's just that… you were… uhm…" Evelyn stuttered like crazy while blushing hard to know that she was stuttering in front of her commander.

She squeaked a bit when her 'commander' puts his hand on her exposed shoulder. "Now, now, calm down, kid. You have only just woken up from hours of being out cold from getting your head bashed by me. I apologize for being harsh at ya' but my natural instinct at that moments were to disable you fast since I still considered you a threat at that time. Still, that's no reason for me to smash your head like that; you could've been killed accidentally, so I patched you up." He waited until it sinks into her for a bit before continuing. "For now, you and your friend over there…" Henry mentioned to the other side of the cargos, "…have to get some rest to recover. Those are some nasty wounds I inflicted on you, you know?"

What? Did her commander just APOLOGIZE to her?! She was the one who attacked him first! She didn't give any attention to identify who she was attacking anymore, even though her purpose is to protect Amelia, which is no excuse for her to attacking her commander by accident! She was the one who have to apologize, not him! Yet, her commander just let it slide off as if nothing is wrong? He even patched her and Zoe's wounds!

Seeing Henry, her 'commander', stood up, broke her out of her frantic train of thoughts. "Anyway, you can call me 'Chief' or my names if it suits to your liking."

Now he was telling her to call him by his names? Isn't that weird?!

"B-but, isn't that impolite for me to call you by your name?" She asked, still having doubts about her commander's actions.

"Oh? Well, that was very polite of you. But don't worry, if you're with me, you can just ignore the formality. 'Henry' is fine." He started to walk away to the opposite direction of the shuttle's ramp.

"But…"

Hearing the girl trailed off, he stopped to look back to see the silver haired girl is looking down, seemingly dejected for some reason, a reason that he has a good idea why. He let out a small sight mentally before cracking his lips open. "Well, if you are comfortable to use military formalities, then I'll let you know that I am a **[Chief Field Surgeon]** by ranks. I am still far from earning the position of **[Medical Commander]** back in our bunker at Aartist. There's that **[High Surgeon Commander]** which is the highest rank in the **[Medic]** -class too, but I don't think I could become one of those guys unless I do something incredibly mind blowing."

Evelyn felt her hopes are coming up in mere seconds. "Does that mean…?"

Henry nods his head in confirmation. "Yes, you can call me commander. Although I have no idea why you want to refer to me as your 'commander', but I do understand that having an outrageous imagination where you're being under a commander's leadership is normal for people who likes military stuffs, just try to call me commander when we were alone. I don't want anybody to suspect neither you nor me just from you calling me 'commander' out in public, you hear?"

Evelyn, literally, jumped out from the cover of her blanket and saluted him. Henry, though a bit worried that she might be forcing herself out of excitement, was impressed at her good stance. It was as if she were trained to do stuffs like this. "Heh, you're an interesting one, indeed." He complimented Evelyn while returning the gesture, seeing her face went red from his compliment. "Well then, I will be outside if you need me. We're about to take off from this planet, so I need to help my friend to perform pre-launching check up before we do so." Henry stated before going down the ramp and out of Evelyn's sight.

"He's a good guy, isn't he?"

A sudden boyish voice coming from further inside of the shuttle startled Evelyn which causes her to jump five feet into the air before turning around to face the speaker, Amelia also doing the same, safe for the startled part. They see a man leaning his shoulder against the door frame that leads further inside the shuttle. He was not as tall as Henry nor the first **[Assault]** -class SAS from before, but what surprises Evelyn the most, is that this man looks like an EXACT COPY of Henry's friend. He was wearing the exact same armor set wore by the **[Assault]** SAS who was loading the last cargo not long ago, even the insignia on his left forearm looks the same. A **[Captain]** rank insignia. The only way of them to clarify which one is which, is mainly the tone difference in their voice, aside from their apparent heights.

The man, obviously not expecting Evelyn's reaction, held up his hand and started to apologize to her. "Whoah, sorry girl, didn't mean to startle you."

"Um… I'm sorry sir, but are you Mister Carrel?" Amelia asked with her ever so soft voice.

The man laughed whole heartily at the question. "Ahahaha, no, of course I'm not," he stated while crossing his arms together, "I'm just in the same class as Carrel does. But we were two different people nonetheless." The man admitted.

"Carrel?" Evelyn tilted her head to the side. "Is that the name of that guy who loaded this cargo?"

The man nods. "Why, yes, my dear. That man was indeed, Carrel."

"Then who are you? I'm assuming you are the co-… I mean, Henry's friend?" Evelyn nearly slips out the word 'commander' but managed to fix it before it went completely out of her mouth.

The man notices the mistake, but shrugs it off before replying. "Yep, I am one of his fellow SAS mercenaries."

"But, Henry says he need to help with the pre-launching check up outside. What are you doing here?"

"Well, you see, I am the pilot of this transport shuttle. I also take part in the check up performance, but I do the job from the control panel within the pilot cockpit. Sorry I didn't mention this to you earlier." The man explained.

"Ah, not at all, I'm sorry for questioning you just now."

"You're forgiven." The man then shifted his sight toward the other side of the cargo, possibly looking in the direction where Zoe is resting. "Speaking of which, did your friend is already awake?" He begins again.

Evelyn shook her head lowly, looking at the same direction. "No, I think she is still sleeping."

The man nods twice. "I see. Then, what about you? Are you still not feeling good?"

Again, the girl in question shook her head in denial. "No, I'm feeling much better now. But I do still feeling light headed."

"Well, I hope you two get well soon."

"I am sure we will. Thank you."

As if on cue, Henry and Carrel entered the shuttle from the rear ramp, still discussing about some topics of their likings until the two saw Evelyn and the man chatting together.

"I see you are getting along with each other." Henry said, turning the two persons' head to him. "Is everything ready?" He asked the SAS who are also acting as the shuttle's pilot, who nods in confirmation while pulling out a small tablet-like device.

"Everything is set. External structure is green, board is green, system's clean, and we still have enough juices to fly this boy to Aartist." The SAS pilot reported as he swipes his fingers dances on the tablet screen, gracefully, for some reason unknown to Evelyn.

But before anyone could do anything else, a person wearing light brown sleevelss sweater with a very short dark brown skirt appeared from beyond the cargos, still rubber her eyes out of its sleepinesh. " ***Yawn~*** Why does it so noisy in the morning?"

Evelyn's eyes widens as wide as a dinner plate before she ran up to the new arrival and glomped her in a bear hug. "Zoe! You're awake!"

"Whoa, Evelyn-san, watch your strength please." The still sleepy Zoe snaps out of her state when she almost lost her balance from the hug. She wrapped her arms around her silver haired companion in return, before they broke apart and she notices the three mercenaries behind her friend. Before she could ask anything, Henry had beaten her to it.

"Great, now that everybody is here, let's begin the introduction, yeah?"

"Huh? Who are you guys?" Zoe asked, still confused.

"I'll start with myself." Henry stated while stepping forward before waving at Zoe. "Hello girls. My name is Henry Duke. I am working as part of the SAS Mercenary Corporation. I am holding the rank of **[Chief Field Surgeon]** as part of the **[Medic]** -class mercenaries back in our base." He said shortly before stepping back, replaced by Carrel who moved forward.

"Greetings, ladies. My name is Carrel Red. I am also working in the SAS Mercenary Corporation with Henry and our pilot here. Currently, I am holding the position of **[Captain]** among my fellow **[Assault]** -class folks back in the base." Finishing his introduction, Carrel nodded at the pilot who took his place.

"Hello there~" The man… sang(?) Leaving the two tank girls confused and somewhat bewildered at his action. But then, when the pilot removed his combat helmet, a silky violet hair fell down from the helmet which flutters down to the pilot's knees, shocking the tank girls in the process. "Let me get things straight for you~ My name is Gregoria Beilschmith, I am part of the SAS Mercenary Corporation as well, just like my friends Henry and Carrel. I'm holding the rank of **[Captain]** too among the **[Assault]** -class soldiers." She finishes her introduction and stepped back.

* * *

 _ **Name: Carrel Red**_

 _ **Age: 31**_

 _ **Occupation: SAS Mercenary, [Assault-Class]**_

 _ **Approximate Combat Level: 52**_

 _ **Rank/Position: Captain**_

 _ **Appearance: Shaggy Red-black hair – Black Eyes – 187 centimeters in height.**_

 _ **Uniform: Standard issued [Assault-Class] SAS Mercenary Uniform. Wearing a set of**_ **[RED][HVM Carbon Fibre]** _ **armor made by**_ **HVM** **Weapons & Armors Manufacturer Company.**

* * *

 _ **Name: Gregoria Beilschmith**_

 _ **Age: 30**_

 _ **Occupation: SAS Mercenary, [Assault-Class]**_

 _ **Approximate Combat Level: 53**_

 _ **Rank/Position: Captain**_

 _ **Appearance: Knee-length Golden Blond Hair – Warm Chocolate eyes – 178 centimeters in height.**_

 _ **Uniform: Standard issued [Assault-Class] SAS Mercenary Uniform. Wearing a set of**_ **[RED][HVM Carbon Fibre]** _ **armor made by**_ **H** **VM Weapons & Armors Manufacturer Company.**

* * *

Henry then spoke up. "I suppose you already know about Amelia?" Seeing the two girls nodded their head at the same time, Henry continues. "Good. Now that we have introduced ourselves, would you mind doing the same to us?"

Evelyn and Zoe nodded before standing up straight in full attention stance and saluted the three mercenaries. "Gutten tach! My name is Evelyn Friedrich. I am the personification of Bavarian's tank destroyer, Hetzer Metal Maiden. I will devote myself to serve under your leadership, commander!" She finished, signaling Zoe to take the spot.

"Good afternoon, commander! My name is Zoe Sherman, and I am the personification of Freedonian's medium tank, Sherman Mk-IV Metal Maiden. The commander is deciding factor in battle! Hence, I will be under your command from today onwards!" She finished, along with their introduction session.

Listening to their introduction session, a couple of large question marks appeared above the three SAS's head. ' _Bavaria? Freedonia? What kind of country name is that?_ ' the three thought exactly the same thing.

Henry gave a simple hand motion to Carrel and Gregoria behind his back, sending a small message for the two. 'Control-room… Discuss… Evelyn-and-Zoe.'

With the message understood by them, the two **[Assault]** -class SAS left for the control room first.

"Very well, now that we know who's who, you girls can loiter around the shuttle for a bit before we take off. I need to talk with my friends for a moment." With that, Henry left the two tank girls, known as 'Metal Maiden' according to their introduction, to wander around the ship for the time being, while still a bit shaken from Gregoria's introduction.

 _Inside the control room…_

"So what do you think about them?" Henry started.

"I don't know." Carrel shrugged. "All I can say is that I'm speechless."

"Then the feeling is mutual." Gregoria agreed. "I know that our technologies are as futuristic as it is, but to actually create girls who could wield large weaponry that only our **[Heavy]** -class are capable of? It feels as if someone wanted to start replacing our **[Heavies]** from their role at the frontline."

"Do you know anything about this, Chief? How did you meet them in the first place?" Carrel asked.

Henry turned to the male **[Assault Captain]**. "For your first answer, no, I don't have any knowledge regarding those girls' whereabouts nor existence. In fact, I never heard of them or this 'Metal Maiden' shit in my life. My mission description told me that all I gotta' do, is to fly here, find and retrieve those Z-Arm Tech company's cargo, then bail the fuck out. As for your second answer, we sorta' met by a coincidence. You see, I was inside the warehouse where these cargos were located at. I found a huge supply of Metal Beams in there after I left Amelia who is sleeping on a bunch of soft sacks to use as a bed. I called you in, ended the call, and started to move those cargos outside. But when I get back, Amelia was gone."

"What, gone? How did she do that?" Gregoria pipes in.

"I'm not done yet, Greg… anyway, it turns out she were awake for god knows how long and she somehow escaped my watch. When I looked for her outside at the entrance, look and behold, she was standing there with Evelyn and Zoe chatting with her." The other two raised their eyebrows at this but stayed silent. "When those two made eye contact with me, we sorta' had this staring contest, as if we were taking in each other's appearance. Then, when I snap out of it, I saw Evelyn's cannon-gun thingy pointed straight at my face."

Carrel winced from that. "That must've been sucks." He commented, trying to imagine what would happen if he was in Henry's shoes.

"It does," Henry responded, "Good thing our reflex were trained as well when we entered SAS Mercenary Corporation. I could've had my face torn in half if that miniature armor-piercing shell strikes home."

"So they weren't lying to us when they said they are the personification of tanks huh?" Gregoria muttered under her breath. "I thought they were just a bull(shit)."

"Apparently, they're not lying. That's why I managed to took their introduction in without doubting the truth since I've learned it the hard way."

"Anyway, back to the main course, are you sure your mission description only told you to retrieve the Z-Arm Tech cargo? Are you sure you aren't missing some point?" Carrel corrected their path as he shot the question at his higher ranked friend.

"I told you, there's nothing else worth mentioning in that mission description except th-" Henry stopped mid-sentence as something finally sparked inside his head. "Wait!"

Carrel and Gregoria fixed their gaze at the **[Chief Field Surgeon]** when the later exclaimed, interested on what he might have to say.

"Now that you mention it, I forgot that I signed this contract for a reason in the first place." Henry took off his **[Dragonfly Helmet]** , revealing his platinum-ish messy, yet spiky hair and closes his crimson eyes as he thinks. "Uh… if I remember correctly, I recall that the contract managed to catch my interest when it says something about 'failed experiment items' in the lower description."

Silent washed over them, leaving the spoken information hanging around in the air, and inside of their minds.

"Do you think that perhaps these… 'Failed experiment items'… might have any connections to the girls? Evelyn and Zoe, I mean." Carrel questioned openly, accepting any suggestion or thoughts that would come his way.

"MIGHT have any CONNECTIONS to them? Don't you mean, THEY are those 'failed experiment items'?" Gregoria added.

"It's possible, but it might not be it either. I mean, it clearly stated that it is an 'ITEM', not 'PERSONEL' or something along that that line… unless…"

The three looked at each other, having the same opinion on the matter.

' _They are the ITEMS'_

Although the three of them were three separate person, having different personalities, moral, and views on things, they also have some things in common that they share amongst them. They value the meaning of existence and life. Because the world they are living in right now is one hell of a fucked up world, people. Many things that once were left in the right path had been turned and twisted into the wrong way, by the wrong people. The idea of someone who thinks of life as something disposable, something not worthy of their time and energy does not exist in fairy tales or folklores anymore. A collection of legends and myths where the evil overlord turned the way of the living into a crooked hellhole is not a bunch of lies that your parents would tell anymore. They exist in the middle of this crumbling society, threatening what is left of mankind's goodwill, along with the lives of the innocent they endanger along the way.

The three let out a collective sighs and decided to keep this discussion postponed until next time.

"Let's just leave this discussion here. There is no use trying to think of anything else if we don't have enough information regarding this issue anyway. Besides, I doubt if Z-arm Tech is the one who created Evelyn and Zoe in the first place, considering they were an outdated weapon manufacturer from the 3rd millennia." Henry stated, ending their small discussion for the day.

"Yeah, I don't think those wankers from ol' Z-Arm Tech would do this. Even if they wanted to, I doubt they have the technologies and tools necessary for it." Carrel stated his opinion too.

"Well, robots are a very common mechanized infantry these days, but to create a personification of war vehicles like tanks was unheard off." Gregoria sighted loudly. "Technology developments were nearly halted entirely thanks to the infection. Only the larger capital city that survived the apocalypse was the only ones capable of researching more technologies, but even they still lack professional personnel on site despite their high end gears ready to be used."

"Anyway, we stalled enough time already. We need to head out soon."

The nodded at each other and went on their own separate ways. Gregoria sits down on the pilot seat, where a hologram keyboard is being shown, which connects to all three panels that showed her all kinds of information regarding the shuttle's performance and condition. Carrel also stays with Gregoria in the control room, but his part is to watch for the 3D hologram map that shows their current position, their coordinates according to the systems calculation, the distance between them and their objective, and so on. Henry, not being the one who manning the shuttle's control, went back into the carriage compartment, where Amelia, Evelyn, and Zoe is still looking around the shuttle with great interest.

"Okay girls, we're about to depart soon. Get back to your seat and strap yourself down, because this is going to be shaky."

After they followed his Henry's instruction, the lights inside the shuttle began to shine brightly, revealing even more details to the shuttle's compartment true color that once still hidden in the shadows. The once sleeping engine kicks off to live as it roars loudly with deafening hum. The entire structure of the shuttle rumbles slightly at the sheer output power of the jet propeller that will help them to get off this planet back to Aartis.

" _ **Testing, testing… alright, this thing's on. Henry, could you guard our tails while we prepare to take off?"**_ The voice that belongs to Carrel came from the shuttle's built-in loud speaker.

Henry entered the built-in radio system on his **[Dragonfly Helmet]** after putting it on. "Roger that." He replied, walking over to the rear ramp.

" _ **Okay Chief, I need you to check the propeller system for me, make sure it doesn't malfunctioning."**_ Gregoria asked. _**"Check; jet propeller left side?"**_

Henry looks on as the left propeller moves around without any problems and flashes a thumb up that was recorded to a live 3rd person feed in Gregoria's monitor.

" _ **Alright, how are we on the right side?"**_

Henry did the same process and flashes another thumb up when he sees nothing wrong with the right propeller.

" _ **All control system's tracking."**_ Gregoria switched several switch up and finished the final preparation. _**"Hovering the space craft."**_

The shuttle rumbles lightly again as it began to gain altitude in its spot, hovering higher and higher into the air steadily as it begins to rotate to face the direction where planet Aartis is located.

" _ **Setting flight coordinates."**_ Carrel voiced through the speaker.

But a series of distant howls managed to sneak its way into Henry's ear, causing the man to turn sharply to gaze out into the vast desert, where a huge wave of undead appeared on the horizon, charging headlong towards the shuttle as more and more zombies popped into view from beyond the sand dunes. He contacted his two friends controlling the space craft. "Holy shit, hurry the fuck up, they're coming for us!" Henry shouted as he pulled out his **[RED][Ronson LBM]** into his grasp and began to shower the zombies with hot lead, scoring multiple headshots followed by a couple more kills with his devastating accuracy. But his attempt to slow the hordes down is fruitless for every one zombie he killed, two or three more would take their late comrades place.

" _ **Have good ends, good low, and good speed, no out lights… ready in the back? Here we go!"**_

When the rear ramp begins to close up, Henry threw another one of his signature ability that is familiar only to the **[Medic]** -class SAS before the ramp closed completely, the **[Zombie Antidote]** bomb. It exploded into a huge thick purplish layer of smoke that pulverize every zombies that were caught within its reach, earning dozens of loud dying shriek from the zombies before the shuttle finally blast its way out to space.

Amelia, Evelyn and Zoe were screaming bloody murder while holding onto their seats for dear life as the shuttle speeds off into the embrace of the dark space. Once the shuttle reached a certain amount of distance from planet Thera's atmosphere, the space craft slowed down into a steady cruise as its two large propeller sweeps them toward their destination. The internal part of the shuttle became more apparent since the shuttle's light took quite a great effect when used in the middle of this space like this. As the gravity controlling system made its work to keep the personnel aboard the craft standing straight instead of floating around, the air filtering room roars to life as it let out tons of white puffs.

 _ ***PSSSHHHHH…..***_

Once everything has gone silent - safe for the engine's sound that would keep humming until their trip ended - things have gone back to its normal condition just like when they are still on the surface of planet Thera, except they are now cruising through the empty space. Henry lets go of his hold on one of the iron handle installed at the ceiling and looked down to see if the girls were doing alright, only to find that they were shaking in their shoes as if they have went through hell and back. He couldn't help but let a comical sweat drop slides down the side of his face at the sight. ' _ooops'_ was the only thing he could thought off.

"Never got the change to warn them how the SAS does an emergency take off…" He muttered under his breath.

" _ **Attention, we have exited the atmosphere and arrived into the open space. You may now unbuckle your seatbelts and wander around the shuttle for the next three hours."**_ Carrel informed.

It took the girls some minutes to gather their wits about them again, but they regained their senses and unbuckled themselves anyway.

"T-that was… T-the most-t… intense flight I've ever had…" Zoe commented, felling like she could throw up at any moment.

"I agree… whole heartedly…" Evelyn lets out, still shaken a bit from the sudden rush but is recovering much faster than her friend, proving her more stable mental tolerance on sudden rush of danger. (Though it wasn't hardly any danger at all)

"Am-melia-chan… Are y-you okay?" Zoe gazed down on the young kid who replied her in an unexpected way.

"That was sooooo cooool…! Hey, Mister Henry, let's do it again!" Amelia _begged_ with golden star filling her excited eyes, shocking the two tank girls while making Henry laughed out loud at her eagerness to actually having MORE of that.

"Hahahahaha, oh geez, you're quite the adventurous soul are ya, eh?" Henry tried to calm down but barely able to do it due to the shocked expression of his two new 'comrades' who are probably doing a double-take. "Oh god, you remind me of my old self, kid. But I'm afraid we can't really do the same thing again, because one, the landing site down in planet Thera is probably filled to the brim with those monsters, and two, I'm certain Evelyn and Zoe had different opinion on the matter." Amelia pouted like a child that just been denied a candy, so he came up with a promise he know he could fulfill. "But later when we found where your family is at, I'll ask my boss to give you a free ride depending on the situation, how's that?"

The promise made her cheer up immediately and held out the smallest finger she has. "Pinky promise?"

Henry smiled and returned the gesture, "It's a pinky promise."

Earning another cheerful 'yippie' from her, Henry sees the child run elsewhere on this medium sized transport shuttle, perhaps going off to see anything that catches her attention.

" _ **Chief, can you come into the pilot's cabin for a bit? We have something to discuss with you."**_ Gregoria speaks up.

' _Wonder what's up.'_ He thought deeply, turning to the two occupants in the room. "Girls, do you mind watching over her for a bit?"

The two nodded and did what was asked of them while Henry himself went into the cockpit to see both of his fellow SAS members. "So, is there anything you need from me squad?"

Carrel and Gregoria looked at each other before the former laughed, "Hah, so you still consider us as your squad mates, hmm? Well, it's not like I'm complaining about it." He said, getting a nod from Gregoria who agreed with him.

"Of course I do. I consider those who went through hell and back with me to the very end as my brother and sisters in arms. But let us not dawdling around and straight into business, yeah? Oh, and drop the formalities, I'm not that type of guy." Henry offered.

Carrel nods at him and cleared his throat. "Very well, Henry." He then gathered his thoughts together and speaks up, "Alright, so, I'm sure you know that two days ago is the date of our weekly supply shipment to arrive." Seeing Henry nodded his head, Carrel continues, "Well, those HVM folks in charge of our weekly shipment security were doing a pretty good job covering our shipment crews lives by escorting them from port Ekhstar to our bunker in sea side town, Aquila…" he stopped, but the **[Medic]** noticed his tone dropping a bit.

"Okay, so what's the problem this time?"

Carrel let out a short sigh before speaking up, "Um, how do I put it…" He rolled his eyes to the side, "The shipments were raided."

Henry was silent for a moment at the bad news before letting out a short, "Fuck…"

"Correct, the HVM reported to us that a large numbers of raiders wearing jail clothes, I suspect they're bloody rikers from what they've told us, managed to shot the escorting HVM wankers and rip their bloody ass a new one. Good thing they managed to bring up the rear while those poor shipment crews ran towards the city with their tails between their legs. But unfortunately, that bloody gunfight was short but loud enough to attract nearby zombies to follow their ass back to Aquila and attacked the city walls." Carrel stopped to let Henry take the information in and witness the questioned man did a face palm before continuing, "Local defenders and armed civilians fought hard to hold the fort down, but then that unholy **[Devastator]** HAD to join the fucking party and smash the wall to kingdom come!" Carrel added by throwing his arms in the air. "So to wrap things up, not only we lose our weekly supply shipment to those assholes but we suffered quite a loss on our ammunition, weapons, medical supplies and manpower. Not to add the expense we had to spend to keep our injured soldiers and civilians alive. I'm sure that our **[Vice Commander]** is not the only one having a migraine as of today."

"No shit Sherlock, even I was starting to get a headache on how many task would be waiting for me when I get home." Henry said under his face palm until he looked up, "So, what other thing do you have to tell me?"

To the man's relief however, Carrel merely shook his head, signing that there's no other bad news that could make their current safe havens condition sounds more bad than it already were. "Nothing else is worth mentioning at the moment. From what I heard from the activity board, most of our experienced **[Medic]** -class wankers are to tend to our wounded while some went to the Western part of the town to help rebuild our destroyed walls. I'd say they're posted in the threatened location of the town to add more manpower to either rebuild the walls or tend to wounded defenders in case of another attack, if not, then they are to join the bloody fight. Later on, I and Gregoria will be posted as the first line of defense to repel any bloody attacks made on the town, so we'll be separated for a while."

"I'd bet on my pride I'll be busy in the hospital near our bunker. Not many people were as experienced as me in both nursery and combat skill at the same time." Henry let a sigh escape his lips.

This is definitely not good. The town of Aquila is one of the larger safe havens for the survivors inhabiting Aartist compared to other smaller survivor camps around the planet. Just that reason is enough prove for the SAS that they cannot let the city fall by any means, and they are hell bent to do just that, even if it means sacrificing their lives for it. But now, with the Western walls that the survivors had worked together with the SAS Mercenary Corporation to built finally crumbles into dust, there is nothing left standing on the line to prevent a zombie invasion of Aquila except for a limited manpower left. With the minimum amount of supplies they have at hand, it would be a very difficult task for them. Their weekly supply shipment doesn't only consisted of much needed weapons and ammunition for the local defenders and trained warriors, but it includes their daily necessity to stay alive; food, medicine, clothing, electronics, tools, building materials, and the list goes on. Ironically, the one who is responsible for the sudden imminent town-wide genocide and possibly the loss of another land for mankind is a whole bunch of criminals running around outside of the city walls, raiding the supply shipment and attracted hordes of zombies towards the town. Very soon the SAS mission desk will be filled with a bunch of SAS mercenaries lining up to sign their name to execute those rikers and save the town's sorry ass while getting a bonus is the shape of cold hard cash, if they were aiming for the money anyway.

Henry could only shake his head. "I seriously hope we could spare some manpower to take the initiative to hunt down those assholes, and burn them alive at the stake if we could, before they cause more trouble for the town. Tell me, how many casualties we took on the event?"

When he sees Carrel and Gregoria took their **[RED][HVM Carbon Fibre Helmet]** off, he instantly regretted to even ask.

"I am afraid to inform you that we have lost more than 50 civilians in the chaos, about 8 of them were kids Amelia's age or younger. Despite the local defenders suffering more than 17 losses and putting their best effort, coordinating with a few SAS mercenaries who are on off duty to respond, they cannot clear the civilians from the combat zone fast enough due to how sudden the attack was. I heard that Pascal was among the SAS on day off too."

Henry looked to his buddy who mentioned one of their squad members, Pascal, the squad's **[Heavy]** -class SAS. "The hell did Pascal was doing there?"

"Long story short, he managed to finish most of his weekly job since he had a free time after your departure and granted an off duty permission by the **[Vice Commander]** , and on the day of the attack, he was going out to buy food on local minimarket."

"God damn it… Where is he now?"

Gregoria speaks up. "He managed to link up with three other separate SAS who are also wandering around the Western part of Aquila and formed an emergency four-man-squad to repel the attacks. I heard from one of the younger **[Medic]** … I think she was Chinese… she told me that Pascal witnessed one of the children getting…" She stopped mid sentence and appears to be reluctant to continue. "I-I don't even want to say it…" She lets out.

"It's a huge blow for him. Especially since we all know that children held a special place in that guy's heart and the children loves him back as much."

Silence washed over the trio again, but this time, the air is thick, making it hard to breathe.

"That's going to be a problem. Not to mention that our squad is the one affected." Henry merely stated. "Has he gone over it yet? Because at the state the town is in, we're going to need every hand available to help out."

"He should be gone over it for now. But I'd say he best avoid unnecessary combat where civilians were involved and let him cool off for a couple more days." Gregoria stated.

The squad leader could only let out an exasperated sigh in frustration. "For the love of god, not even one day I've rested from my mission and then this happens. Wonder what else those fuckers had in store to throw at us before I rip their asses a new one." Henry then went out of the room but stopped for a bit when he reaches the door. "I'm going to hit the sack. Haven't got much sleep on Thera, so I figured I'll need to rest before shit goes down when we arrive. If I didn't wake up when we're nearing the landing pad, please wake me up, will ya'?"

Carrel nodded his head, gaining a small gesture of 'thanks' from the **[Medic]** who then went out of the room, leaving the two of them to continue their job.

When the commander left us to roam around this… transport craft, or transport _shuttle_ , as commander, Carrel, and Gregoria called it, he went into the pilot's cabin to discuss something with Carrel and Gregoria after the former called him via the loud speakers. I have no idea what they were talking about in there, but I had this tingling feelings deep within me that whatever it is they're discussing, it is most likely a very serious matter for some reason I don't know about. But after recalling the memories of how our commander beat us several hours ago, I'm sure the three of them could handle this problem with no difficulties, or so I hope. There's nothing wrong with enthusiasm and staying positive, right?

Speaking of which, after we were left alone, Evelyn gave me a brief run down on what had happened and everything she has done on this shuttle when I was still asleep. She told me the entire situations and shared her knowledge with me, not only using mere words that she made into a good story, but also using data transferring ability that was programmed into us when we were constructed. I am so grateful to know Amelia has been taking good care of me when I was unconscious, so I decided to give her a big hug to show her how thankful I am to her. After that, the three of us simply sat down and talked about lots of things since there is nothing much for us to see in this transport shuttle.

But still, I can't begin to describe on what to say about this transport's interior to be honest. Because I don't have the required knowledge to understand even a fourth of what was installed in this shuttle, I cannot calculate on how advanced the technologies this transport has in it. But despite of how amateur I am on that field of work, I am smart enough to come to a conclusion that this transport has the most advanced pieces of equipments and technologies installed on board, despite of its simple job of… well, transporting stuff. I have never seen a lot of technologies being put together in a small aircraft… uh, I mean _space_ craft. Even compared to how advanced the technologies that I had seen when I was first activated, none of them could even be compared to what the commander and his friends have here.

Now that I think about it, my memories from when I was first activated were kind of a blur at this point. Does this happen when _Metal Maidens_ were put into a stasis for too long, or does it because my system has some flaws in it that it corrupted my memory bank? No, there's no way that was it. Anyway, there is not much for me to remember from what is left inside my memory bank. All I could recall is that I was activated around the same time as Evelyn, and some other Metal Maidens whose face I barely recognize does. I also remember seeing a lot of smart looking people, some of them even are wearing a pair of glasses, who are wearing identical white robes. I forgot what they were working as, but I think they are either scientist, or just a bunch of researchers or engineers for all I could know. Not much is left after that. I failed to regain the names of those _Metal Maidens_ except for Evelyn, but I remember that we were scheduled to be transferred to a lot of separate locations at the same time. And I was lucky to be assigned at the same location as Evelyn does, but that was all I have left in my memory bank. Oh, and I don't think the techie stuffs around that room is as advanced as the ones on board this shuttle, so maybe time has flies for a long time already, I suppose.

But enough about that, I don't think trying to recall the rest of my memories could recover what was lost. Besides, if I am a real human, I think I could try to remember it. But since I'm a Metal Maiden constructed with whatever metal based material to built my entire body, then add tons of small sized cables of various colors and purposes, then those rotating gears and the chips and whatnot required to construct me, once I lost my memories, it cannot be retrieved back. There IS a way though, I can always download the data stored within my friend's or my fellow Metal Maidens memory chip and recover what happened through their perspective point of view, then process them with what's left in my memory chip. Well, I never really done it before since I have never had my memory lost up until now, so I don't know the details, but that was the best way I could describe it. I don't know about Evelyn, maybe her memory of when our first time activated were erased as well, but maybe she has most of her memory intact if not all instead, but I better keep my mouth shut for now. Perhaps I'll ask her when the time is right.

Ah, I'm rambling again. What a bad habit I have.

While still caressing Amelia's head in her sleeps, chatted about how beautiful the dark space looked up close. Because to be honest, who would ever get the change to do this often, traveling through space like an astronaut with the exception of that big white rocket thingy from movies? Not everyone apparently. Although the topic that Evelyn and I talked about shifted into our commander later on; trying to figure out what would he show to us in the near future if he were to lead us into battle by judging from the short experience we have with our commander after we woke up.

"I think the commander was a badass! We saw how he deals with whatever enemies coming after us before we depart right? The way he quickly switching his target from afar so quickly, it was as if he managed to kill them from far away so fast with great accuracy. I'm starting to wonder how he would lead us when he brought us along for his mission." I shared my thoughts to Evelyn.

"He's not just a badass, he's so cool too. I'm sure he will treat us as equals later. I mean, when he defeats us back there, I can't believe he could be so skilled when taking us down. But then, after he took us in, he literally treated our wounds and talked to us as if nothing had happened. We'll be just fine under his command." She replied.

"I guess you're right. But then again, it could also be that he was only acting cool in front of us. You know, when men gets stuck with such pretty girls like us, it's only natural for them to act tough and cool right?" I stated, giggling together with her.

"Ehehe, you silly airhead, there's no way he was just acting up."

"Hey, I'm not an airhead!" I refused her new nickname for me instantly. I am smart on my field of work you know! There's no way you can call me an airhead when I show you what I was made of.

"I know, I know, I'm just joking! But still, I don't think what commander did back there was just an act. You can clearly see it from the way he yelled at Carrel and Gregoria to get the shuttle moving as fast as possible, the two even sounded they acknowledge his warnings too. If all of that was just an act, why would he spend THAT much ammunitions AND that purplish grenade thing just to do it? I'm sure commander knows that those munitions and grenade could be used for a more useful purpose." Evelyn continued.

Hmmm… she's not wrong. Does the commander really do it all seriously? It was not an act, right? "Well, if you put it that way, then I won't refuse it. I don't think the commander was the type of person who would treat serious matter lightly… unless he knew he could get away with it completely."

"Come on now, Zoe. Don't start spewing out nonsense just because the commander was sleeping."

"Hey, I was just saying! You don't have to be so stiff in times like these."

"The way you say that is kind of like you're meaning to say it though…"

Geez, Evelyn! I don't understand why you are being so straight forward like that. Did I do something wrong? Or perhaps the reason you were very protective of him and the reason you regard him highly like that was because of something else? Wait, did Evelyn LIKED him? Oooooohhh… this might be interesting.

Without realizing it, a small smile formed on my face and Evelyn is visibly feeling uncomfortable by noticing my smile.

"Geez, why are you so protective of his name? Do you like him?"

Evelyn suddenly blushes when I brought the topic up to her presence. She quickly hides her reddening face into her palms and begins to muttering something I couldn't hear clearly. _'Jackpot!'_

"Oh oh oh! So you DO like him!" I exclaimed, getting an even more hilarious reaction from her.

"Bweh-… w-well, what was wrong for me to like him?! The commander is a s-strong yet g-gent-tle man after all!" She tried to not stutter but failed horribly. But I couldn't stop now, I'm on a roll!

"Wow, I never know you would like that type of person, Evelyn-san. It's very surprising."

She then glared at me sharply, but her intimidating level is beyond negative at this point because her red face of fifty shades of red betrayed herself. "S-shut up! D-don't you l-l-like him too?!"

I couldn't help but laugh at her attempt to turn the table. "Hehehe… well, you never know." I smirked at her.

"S-s-so you actually liked him too, d-don't you!"

"Hmmm, using my weapon against me now, are you? Okay then, since you liked him that much, should I stay silent…" My (wicked) smirk could only grow wider at this point. "Or maybe I'll tell Commander Henry about your… 'Crush', on him?" I laughed at myself at this point.

Oh I am so evil.

Suddenly, Evelyn's face went over 5000 shades of red while her ears are puffing out thick steams as her figure went frozen from my 'offer' just now. It's like watching her head about to explode into smoke from the sheer embarrassment I put on her!

"Noooooooo! Don't tell it to the commandeeeeeeeer!"

* * *

"Hmm? Was that Evelyn just now?" Gregoria asked loudly after hearing Evelny's voice from the other room.

"I think they were talking about something. No bloody idea what though." Carrel replied, still focused on his large hologram map he is controlling. For some reason, he couldn't resist his urge to roll his eyes to the side. He knows that Evelyn and Zoe were having fun talking to each other, but he didn't hear exactly what they were talking about. "But I have this gut feeling that they were talking about us."

* * *

I woke up from my much needed sleep groggily. I felt even fresher than ever now. Working as an SAS Mercenary sure has its own down side in the long run. Lately, due to a lot of surge of zombie activity across the entire region where the town of Aquila was located, which I haven't mentioned to the girls yet, most of us were dispatched again from time to time to take care of it. This leads to us having less resting time than we normally does. At first glance, it didn't seems much because we always mentioned that it was no problem as always, but as time passed by, the toll began to show itself into the light. It was just a coincidence I picked this shipment retrieval mission a week ago; it's just that I never know I'll be stuck for a week due to that pilot's fault. I'm sure that once I report my return to the **[Vice Commander]** , I will be put to work right then and there. I'll be lucky to even get half an hour break after this is all over.

Anyway, I cracked my sore joints a bit to lose them up.

 _ ***crack***_

Ah… that feels good.

…

…

…

No, it's nothing weird, I promise.

"Noooooooo! Don't tell it to the commandeeeeeeeer!"

That was… Evelyn's voice, isn't it? Why is she yelling like that? Also, don't tell me about what? Out of curiosity, I let myself off from the chairs installed to the shuttle's wall that I used as bed and stands up straight, getting some of my joints popped along when I do so. Man, I swear getting less sleep could get into my physical conditions one of these days. I went over to the corner, turns toward the two who are sitting together with Amelia sleeping on Zoe's lap, and spoke up. "Don't tell me what?"

Instantly, I faintly catches the small hint of them both jumped slightly at my sudden presence. I take it these two never expected me to wake up anytime soon, furthermore to anticipate me popping up right next to them like this.

"C-commander! Y-you're awake!" Zoe exclaimed.

"Yeah, so it would seem." I shrugged at the obvious statement. "Speaking of that, I woke up just a moment ago. I happen to wake up in time to hear Evelyn yelling something about not to tell me something though. Is there anything of the matter you were discussing about?" Evelyn turned to me… somewhat slowly, before replying.

"N-nothing… nothing at all!" I noticed her face were deep red. Did she catch a cold? It'd be bad if she does.

I removed my **[RED][Dragonfly Gloves]** and planted my palm on her forehead to check her temperature. "Wah-!"

Hmm… her temperature is normal. At least I know that she was not cold, but I wonder what caused her face to be this beet red. So I decided to kneel down to her eye level and asked. "Evelyn, your face was red, but your temperature was normal when I checked. Are you feeling unwell?"

"Ah, no! I'm okay, thank you for worrying about my well being." She ensured me, but her stutters made me unsure.

"Are you sure about that? Because I against the idea of you hiding your illness when I can do something about it." I tried pressuring her.

"No commander, I am fine. I'm not sick, so you don't have to worry about me. Thanks for worrying about me though." She ensured me again. Since I don't want to pressure her any further, I accept her statement.

"Alright then, if by any change you are feeling sick or something, please don't hesitate to tell me, okay? I don't want anybody under my command, either you or my fellow SAS squad mates, to be suffering alone just because you don't want to slow me down." I told them while standing up.

I wonder how long I've been asleep...

I feel refreshed again of course, but personally, I think the sleep was too short. But then again, is there ever any sleep, and I mean NORMAL sleep, that could last for more than a minute when the timer starts when you fell asleep? If you count in the dream that you're having, then be my guest. Perhaps I could ask my friends in the control room. "I'm going to the control room for a minute, okay? I wanna check on how much farther we have to go before we could prepare to land." Earning a nod or two from the two… tank girls, or whatever their designated name was, which is something I could never get used to, I entered the control room. Inside, I see my friend Carrel drinking on his water canteen while standing up, probably drinking his own tea that he made before his departure to pick me up. Man, I never understand his reasons for his tea loving attitude even without proper tea cup, but I greet him anyway. "Wuzzap?"

Carrel looked up from me and stopped drinking. "Ah, good, you're awake. I was thinking of waking you up since we are about to land in about a quarter of an hour. I also think that the girls need a heads up in case they're going to get another bloody seizure." He said chuckling slightly.

Now that he mentioned it, I'm sure the girls would appreciate some heads up for landing. It's not as rough as taking off, but it could be shaky when we entered the atmosphere. Speakin' of which, I don't see our pilot, Gregoria, anywhere in the room. "That's weird, where did Gregoria went off to now?" I asked out loud.

Carrel raised his eyebrow as if it was the most obvious question ever existed. "What are you talking about? Didn't she go into the cargo compartment? She said she was curious about our last two cargos that weighted twice of the rest of our load, so she went to check it out."

Wait, Gregoria did? I never noticed her presence back there, so how did she do that? "Uh, nope… I definitely didn't see or sensing her presence back in the room." I answered honestly.

"Seriously? She clearly went in there seconds ago before you came in." I shook my head to tell him that my statement was correct. "Oh well, it doesn't matter. In fact, I am curious as to what was contained within those metal boxes too. Do you think we can open it? Since they're part of your contract objectives, I think it is only proper for me to ask for your permission, no?"

I couldn't agree less with that last statement. But then again, there's nothing to do for now, so a little peek won't hurt right? I understand the fact that cargo could weight differently depending on what was contained within them, but that LAST TWO bad boys weights as if they're made to carry multiple person inside them!

"I don't think it would hurt to poke around a bit. At least, we gotta clean off the remnants or traces of us tampering with those Z-Arm Tech people's stuff. Don't wanna suffer some penalties for breaking the contract rules, if there is any to begin with, due to our curiosity only. Especially not after a week being stuck in that god damned desert planet Thera. Let's go." With that, the two of us exited the room with Carrel folloing closely behind me.

It turns out, Gregoria DID entered the cargo holding compartment around the time when I was talking with Evelyn and Zoe. When I asked her how I didn't notice her entering, she simply informed me that she saw me talking with Evely and she does not like the idea of interrupting my conversation, so she opted to quietly pass by without us noticing.

I forgot to mention this, but just like any other military Special Forces, nearly all of the SAS mercenaries had been trained in the art of stealth and detection all together. Not everyone could master both of these branches despite the amount of time and dedication that we put into our training to improve them, but those who mastered the two arts could be very dangerous when it was used against their enemies. I'll mention this now in case I would forget later in the future, but even my own training could only carry me so far. Despite being able to master the stealth branch's techniques, I can't really do so much when it comes to detection skill, hence forth, I always rely on my built-in radar installed within my **[Dragonfly Helmet]** to do the enemy spotting for me.

However, Gregoria is a different case. I learned from years ago in my early days as an SAS member, Gregoria actually has a natural talent to not only master BOTH of the stealth and detection branches, but she could ALSO develop new and creative way to always keep the element of surprise in her side, and her enemy detection level in the highest level at all times, even when she were drinking some coffee in a café in the middle of her break. She also developed her mastery in such a short amount of time; she did this within two years compared to her peer's four. What made my boss impressed though, is the fact that she was able to slip pass the **[Vice Commander]** 's detection capability and caught (him/her?) off guard from time to time.

"For God's sake… and you're only one year older than me…" I face palmed, somehow still not understanding the reason why she joined my squad in the first place, and earning a small giggle from the (older) woman in front of him. "You know, sometimes I wonder why a natural talented person like you, who had great potential, would waste your precious life to stay in my squad, instead of other skilled squads back home."

*Pat*

"?"

I looked up when something landed on my head. It was Gregoria. She put her gloved hand on my head to ruffle it around, much to my charging, while sporting a wide smile despite the fact that she had to reach up since she was shorter than I do. Carrel also gave me his small trademark grin to me at the corner of my vision.

"That is the exact reason why I refused to leave your squad only to join some other squad that I know nothing about. I still remember my own reason to become your squad mate back in the day when you're still your old self. Unlike my peers who regard me like I'm some famous super star or something like that and shies away in my presence, your old self simply swat the fact that I'm possibly the best soldier in my class and accept me for who I am. You treated me like a friend you meet every day on the streets. And like not everyone could master both stealth and detection branches, not every SAS treated me like you did. Seriously, have you forgotten what you told me that day?"

What I told her 'that' day?

Hold on…

* * *

 _ **2 years since Gregoria entered service. 3 months since Henry first met her…**_

 _Henry was sitting on a small plastic chair inside one of the underground hangar located just below the ground where a military airfield is located. His_ _ **[HIKS S300]**_ _bolt-action sniper rifle is sitting beside him as he is in the middle of performing daily maintenance on the said gun. The small squad-sized transport shuttle parked beside him towers over the man three times of his actual height, casting shadow that draped over the young_ _ **[Medic]**_ _as a short stick of yellow colored cigarette was being held between his lips and teeth. It was just another day in the life of Henry, a young_ _ **[Senior Field Medic]**_ _who was known as a 'lone wolf'. A mercenary ready to be hired that works by himself, using whatever skills he had acquired up to that point to get the job done, get paid, then go home. Nothing beats the silence that always keeps him company for most of his life. The yellow colored smoke from his cigarette flies thinly on the air around him as he continued his maintenance on his sniper._

 _But the short moments of silence that he indulge himself in was broken when a new pair of footsteps entered the hangar, which belonged to Gregoria, the_ _ **[Assault Leader]**_ _at the time, looking exhausted more than ever._

" _Hi, I'm back…" She exhaled, clearly pointing out her exhaustion to him._

"… _welcome back." He replied quietly, "You sure look like some hammered shit today." He continued without giving even a small glance at the young girl._

" _Yeah, I have seen better days before…" She sighed while taking off her helmet._

" _So…? What made you come here?" Henry questioned, "Don't you have anything better to do at the moment? Like, I dunno… selecting a squad that you want to be a part with or something more productive." He said to her, completely lacking the emotions in his words._

" _Ah, it's nothing, really. I just thought I want to drop by and say 'hi' to you is all since, you know, the weather is good today." She replied nonchalantly._

 _There was a moments of silence that occurred between the two of them. Gregoria still standing where she stood while Henry keep performing his maintenance without seemingly bothered by her stare, even though the former's vision was obscured slightly by the shadow that looms over the_ _ **[Medic]**_ _. Sensing that Henry would not answering her anytime soon, she decided to head over to him, but was stopped when the man speaks up. "You're a terrible liar girl, I'll give you that." This causes the said girl to freeze in her place, not exactly offended by his words despite knowing their difference in rank. "Last time I checked, my Combot Pilot said that it was raining outside, how can you call it a 'good weather' at all?"_

 _Yep, she was busted in less than a minute by a fellow SAS who held lower rank than herself._

" _By the way… heard you passed those bullshit tests about stealth and detection days ago. Congratulations. Now you can be putted in far more skilled squadrons than before." Henry then looked up from his work to her. "Glad to know that you got a high potential to become a great mercenary." He complimented while flashing her a thin smile._

 _Gregoria doesn't know whether she should be irritated by how casual he said his claims or blush from his compliment, but her thoughts were gone when Henry's smile disappeared quickly from his expression._

" _Anyway, enough back patting from me over that matter. Now though, I know that you are older and had a higher rank than I do, but try not to bullshit me ma'am. I know you were hiding your true reasoning of coming here to see me in the first place, because not everyone ever visited this 'lone wolf' unless they have to."_

 _She stood there for a minute before letting out a sigh. If Henry already know that much, then there's no reason for her to hide it anymore, right?_

" _Well, it's about how my classmates and everybody else's attitude changing towards me." Seeing the_ _ **[Medic]**_ _raises one of his eyebrow, she continues, "It has been two years since I've joined the SAS Mercenary Corporation. I will wholeheartedly admit that it was very tough at first. It was thanks for all of my classmates' support that I was able to stand strong up until now. But as I made huge amount of progress in my training to be like how I am now, they began to somewhat shies away from me. They said that I will be okay on my own and that they don't deserve to fight alongside someone as strong as me. Then, after the news about how I passed the stealth and detection branches tests, every other SAS begins to looked up to me like I'm some sort of celebrity or something." She explained, looking down at the floor the entire time._

 _Her head shot up when she hears a scoff coming from the sitting man. "Well, ain't that supposed to be good? Being respected or even noticed by other SAS folks is something that I doubt I will ever get, so what the hell's the problem?" A slight amount of sarcasm was dripping from his last sentence._

" _Of course it is not! I don't want to be respected by my own classmates. I want to fight with them equally without batting an eye on our skills! But as long as they shies away from me like that, how am I supposed to do that?!"_

 _The young_ _ **[Medic]**_ _grunted in response to her question. He stood up from his plastic chair, put his_ _ **[HIKS S300]**_ _away on a nearby wooden table, and pulls his cigarette from his mouth to puff away the yellow smoke that had entered his lungs. He then walked past the female_ _ **[Assault]**_ _SAS to a nearby vending machine located at the corner of this small hangar they're in. "Listen girl, there are some fatal flaws when you become a 'lone wolf' like me. One of them is that I am not so much of a social able man ever live. Hence from that, I can't come up with any ideas to handle your social problems."_

 _He inserted a small change into the machine before selecting a cold canned coffee from the machine that fell with a loud 'clank' before picking it up. "It's not because I'm against socializing, aight'? I just don't like a boring conversation is all. I speak what needed to be told, straight to the point, straight to business, and left just like that. So, I must apologize to you for this, but I don't know what you can do to fix that problem. Because once people labeled you as their 'not worthy of their presence or help' list, then there's not much you can do to change how they looked at you." He then went pass Gregoria once more and plops down onto his plastic chair before opening the canned coffee with a loud 'pssh!'._

" _But I'll tell you this…" He said, taking a small sip of his cold coffee. "If by any change your friends needed you but found that you have disappeared from their lives, it's their own fault for not accepting you as you are. It might sound harsh or impolite of me for all I care, but hey... if someone cannot appreciate your presence, then let them feel your absence." He shrugged._

 _Henry put his coffee away before proceeding. "For me personally, I don't give a damn as to who you are, or how skilled you are in the eyes of other people. You can be a child from a noble family or you can be the king's daughter or you can be the_ _ **[High Commander]**_ _'s daughter for all I know. But when you're with me, I will treat you as any other folks I met on the streets. Formalities be damned in SAS Mercenary Corporation, so why should I?" He said, surprising the female_ _ **[Assault Leader]**_ _._

" _I have known you for only three months now, but despite my reputation of being a 'lone wolf' with no greater social skills than this, you still decided to talk to me on some occasions. That's why I consider you as one of my few friends." Henry chuckled to himself. "Seriously, if you're someone else, I'd be kicking you out of my hangar for disturbing my alone time, heh." He added, finishing his small speech to Gregoria._

" _I_ _-I see… okay then, thank you for your advice. I'll be going to my apartment then." Gregoria said, still in a small daze of processing what she had just heard from him._

" _Wait."_

 _Before she exited the hangar completely though, she was stopped by Henry who called out to her._

" _Just so you know, if you ever had any trouble aside from social problems, don't hesitate to come to me. Some company could be a good change of life for me, but don't expect any formalities or honorary from me, even if you're that of a higher rank than me, you hear?"_

 _Hearing his message, she couldn't help but smile softly to herself._

" _Yes, I heard it. Thank you." She said before exiting the hangar._

* * *

…

Oh, that day. Wow, do I really changed that much? I forgot.

I shrugged at Gregoria. "Well, maybe… maybe not… who knows?"

"Oh, come on! Do your memory is always this bad?!" She groaned and smacked me right on top of my head.

"Okay, okay! I'm sorry!" I protected my head from another smack with my arm. Geez, she really needs to chill out just like me once in a while. That was supposed to be a joke too!

"Anyway," I said, "Let's just open the cargo and end it here. We are arriving shortly, remember?"

Thankfully, she stopped her smacking frenzy on my head and nodded her head.

"Fine, then. Why don't YOU open them yourself and let us see what you got this time?" She told me, still feeling a bit irritated from my earlier response.

"Alright, calm down! You don't have to get worked up from that joke, do you?" I could hear Evelyn and Zoe giggling in the back ground for a moment there. I'm surprised that Amelia hasn't woken up yet from all those commotions we just caused.

I moved in front of the first cargo and brought up my ISAC device on my wrist. I played with ISAC for a bit, selecting the option to hack the electric lock codes installed on the cargo and typing down the necessary codes n' stuff like that on my ISAC before pressing the 'begin hacking' button. It only took seconds for my ISAC to hack into the system and unlock the thing, because the light that once shines red turns into green quickly with a loud 'beep!'

"Hacking is a success. Now, let's see what we got." I said before pressing the 'open' button that appeared in a new tab. The reaction is instant, obviously, as the cargo in front of me… I mean, in front of US since everyone is now standing around the cargo I opened minus Amelia who are still sleeping (How did Zoe managed to not wake her up, I'll left it in your imagination). The cargo emitted huge streams of white steams which kind of caught us off guard.

 _ ***PSSSSSSSSHHHHH!***_

Then suddenly, the entire frame fell off completely to the cold floor.

 _ ***BANG!***_

What waits inside it was something that made our jaws drop to the floor like a shuttle crashing down to the ground with full speed.

"What the bloody fuck?!" Carrel shouted in total shock while the rest of us has our mouth hanging in the open.

Now Carrel and I know exactly why this cargo was heavy as fuck. It turns out, the cargo is actually filled with THREE MUTHA FUHKIN' GIRLS!

The first girl is wearing a white-blue short sleeved serafuku uniform, somewhat resembling those characters in highschool animes that I and Carrel watched in our free time… scratch that, it LOOKS identical with the ones I've seen on TV. A pair of brown shoes and black socks with a single white stripe adorned her feet. She has black hair in a small ponytail and a payot in front.

The second girl is wearing a school uniform-esque garment that is half-opened to expose her navel, with a green skirt, brown pantyhose, and a pair of grayish shoes with red sole. Her shoulder length hair has quite weird red shading on them for some reason.

The third girl is wearing a black serafuku with white folded up sleeves and red necktie. She also wore a pair of brown shoes with a pair of knee-height black socks. She has straight long blonde hair that reaches down just above her bottom with a hair ribbon on top and green eyes.

I don't know why or how, but all of their clothing is clean as fuck, even after being locked up in the now-broken-cargo for god knows how long.

All of us looked like we're about to ask each other about god knows what, but the sign of these three new girls twitched slightly caught our attention. Not long after that, they opened their eyes perfectly at the same time. The first girl wearing white-blue serafuku opened her pale brownish eyes that sleepily(?) looked around the cargo compartment room. The second girl which I mentioned has weird shading in her red hair opened her dark crimson eyes which quickly filled with worry when she noticed all of us looking at them weirdly. The last girl however, who opened her bright emerald eyes, looked around as if looking for something but stopped when she fixed her sight on me.

Oh wait, scratch that again… the girls stopped looking around when they fixed their sights on me, before they all suddenly came into full attention and saluted me.

"Nice to meet you! I am the name ship of the Fubuki-class destroyer, the first ship, Fubuki! Thanks for having me!" The white-blue serafuku wearing girl, Fubuki, introduced herself to me.

"I am the name ship of Mutsuki-class destroyer, the second ship, Mutsuki! Let's work together, admiral!" Uhhh, what? Admiral?!

"POOOOOOOOOIIIIIIIIIII…!"

"Ha-GUEGH!"

A sudden force that crashed into my stomach knocked the wind out of me as I found myself falling backwards with something holding onto my figure tightly.

 _ ***THUD***_

"Ow!" I landed loudly flat on my back with a loud thud, feeling the sudden rush of pain erupted from my back which seemingly slams into the hard floor.

"Yuudachi-chan!" The red head girl, Mutsuki, shouted in panic when seeing me getting knocked out by the third girl. She went over to me and pulled the last blond girl who looked like she was already snuggling into my figure away and started to scold her.

Whatever she was talking about, I can't really hear it clearly since my main focus is to get up to my feet. I winced a bit when I feel my joints _'pops'_ as I stood up. Mutsuki then turned to me with the disheartened looking blond girl standing beside him.

"Come on now, Yuudachi-chan, introduce yourself properly this time." Mutsuki said.

"Hi, I'm the fourth ship of Shiratsuyu-class destroyer, Yuudachi. Nice to meet you, poi~." The girl who introduced herself as Yuudachi said. What does 'poi' means anyway?

 _ ***RIIIIIING***_

' _ **Warning: entering the range of Aartis planet atmosphere. No pilot is detected inside the cockpit.'**_

The yellow warning sirens kicks in as a female robotic voice warned us of our immediate arrival to Aartis. I shot Gregoria a dagger glare when the shuttle warned us of our pilot's absence in the cockpit. So I quickly looked back to everyone in the room and speak up with a rather loud voice.

"Alright, listen up people! For one, Fubuki, Mutsuki, and Yuudachi, welcome aboard on our last stop in our destination! Second, Evelny and Zoe, help me to wake Amelia up and to fasten the seatbelts for these three! And third, **get your ass moving, now!** " I hollered the last sentence to get them moving quickly.

Carrel and Gregoria, being the SAS mercenary that pilots this shuttle they are, immediately bolted for the control room to take care of our landing issues. Evelyn helped Fubuki, Mutsuki, and Yuudachi who obviously confused as to what in the god's name is going on while Zoe woke Amelia up who cheered in happiness to know that we are going to do another 'rough' trip, much to Zoe's charging. Thanks for Evelyn's rapid response, she managed to get the three… destroyer girls(?) seated and safely strapped into their seats.

"Okay girls, I know this is a bit sudden but listen up! We are currently flying through open space to head for planet Aartis and land there! From my past experience, I'd say this landing is going to be a rough one, so brace yourselves and try not to get a seizure from this short 'trip'! God be with you!"

The last thing I know before we penetrated the atmosphere is the horrified expression from the three new girls before the shuttle violently shook like a massive earthquake striking the entire shuttle's internal part.

Let's just say that the entire cargo compartment was filled with lots and lots of both horrified and excited screams from the girls.

* * *

 _ **There you go. I finally finished it after all this time. Sorry for the late (if not too late, I dunno. It has been a month since chapter 1 is out) update, guys. I could only write down this chapter little by little thanks for my limited time. Also, with this, the requirement for *SAS Zombie Assault X Kancolle X Metal Waltz* crossover tags are now fulfilled. Now, if you please excuse me, I need to rest for a while. I think I just caught a fever.**_

 _ **Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter, guys. Don't forget that reviews are warmly welcomed, enjoy your day, and I'll catch you next time. Bye-byez!**_


	3. Chaos on Troubled Home Front

_**Hello guys! Welcome back to my**_ **SAS 4 Zombie Assault** _ **X**_ **Kancolle** _ **X**_ **Metal Waltz** _ **crossover!**_

 _ **Just want to tell you guys that in this past month, the views are counting up like crazy! I can't thank you enough for actually putting up your patience to read this story, guys. In case you want some more actions going on, no need to wait any longer, you'll be seeing some in this chapter.**_

 _ **I want to thank**_ **Abdi Shabil729** _ **for giving me your review. I hope you keep reading this fanfict and enjoy it as much as I do.**_

 _ **Now, with that out of the way, let's get going!**_

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Chaos on Troubled Home Front**

After three hours of not so silent travel through the empty space, the shuttle carrying our group of protagonist finally reached the atmosphere of the planet known as Aartis. But they were not going in all nice and quiet. Instead, they were going through the atmosphere with a huge fire burning away the shuttle's bow which enveloped the entire shuttle into a ball of flames.

The three new members, namely – somewhat or somehow – the reincarnation of destroyer Fubuki, destroyer Mutsuki, and destroyer Yuudachi, is not handling their first hand experience of rough landing well. Henry who is standing in the cargo compartment while holding onto one of the iron bar installed on the ceiling could faintly see that the girls, including the other two Metal Maidens, are holding onto their seat as if life depends on it. Not only that, Mutsuki were screaming for dear life while Fubuki and Yuudachi looked like they really need some trash bin to throw whatever breakfast they ate out of their stomach. Amelia however, were jumping up and down on her seat as if this little 'shaky trip' were more like a joyride instead of the last destination in life, causing Henry to worry about her mental health for a little.

Henry had witnessed how badly Evelyn and Zoe handled their 'most likely emergency' take off from planet Thera three hours ago, so he couldn't really blame the girls if they are not faring any better on this one.

" _ **Hang on people, we are almost through!"**_ Gregoria's voice blasted through the speaker admist all of the rumbling noises and warning sirens that echoes within the shuttle. Fortunately for the girls, a few seconds was all it needed for the shuttle to completely penetrate the atmosphere and the 'earthquake' inside the shuttle to dies down. It gives a huge wave of relief for the three destroyers and the other two Metal Maidens, minus Amelia who is feeling dejected because the ride has come to an end. Henry could only shake his head on how ironic the scene looks. Five girls who claim they were the reincarnation of tanks and warships of days past couldn't handle the stress of this trip better than a twelve year old kid.

" _ **We have passed Aartis' atmosphere safely and is heading to the airfield near the town of Aquilla. Be advised that we are going to land in about two minutes. I can even see the airfield from here."**_ Gregoria informed the passengers.

Henry, still looking toward the control room's door, decided to kill sometime by asking the girls, "How are you girls holding up?" But when seconds passed and he never gets his answer, he turns around and nearly regretted his decision to even ask. The three destroyers, more or less, were reduced into a stuttering mess. Muttering things that he couldn't hear clearly, not that he wanted to know. Zoe had already sporting that comical look where her eyes were pure white while foams gathered around the corner of her mouth, twitching ever so slightly once in a while. Evelyn was silent, but the dark look on her face showed how much discomfort she was experiencing right now. Henry gave up to even looking at Amelia's reaction, knowing her nature.

Zoe groaned loudly as she tries to calm herself down after the whole predicament. "Mooouuu… I can't get used to rough flying like this!" The medium tank whined, her hands still shaking slightly.

"Uuuugh… I think… you're not the… only one…" Fubuki muttered weakly. If one looked closely, one could notice of how uncomfortable her _stomach_ is because she looks like she just spent about half an hour in a dispenser or something.

"I think… I'm going to pass out… if the flight took a minute longer…" Mutsuki followed, her conditions couldn't be too different than the others.

"Poi…" That was the only word Yuudachi repeated over and over again.

Evelyn however, stayed silent during the whole time. But again, that dark look on her face betrays her on how much she wanted to just hit the bed and sleep the entire day. Henry respected her for not complaining though, because if anyone ever has time to complain, then they definitely have the time to become a better person than they currently are. But then again, they all look too young, so maybe he could tolerate that much.

Minutes later, Gregoria's voice emerges once more through the speaker. _**"We are nearing the landing pad. Proceeding to hover the space craft."**_

All passengers on board could sense the shuttle slowing down into a halt, where as the shuttle were left hovering on the air.

" _ **Descending to the ground."**_

The shuttle begins its spiral way downward to the ground. When the entire structure rocked for a moment, they knew that they have finally reached their destination.

* * *

The transport shuttle finally touched down on the cold freezing black landing pad. Yes, it was winter season throughout this region. But despite the freezing temperature, a lot of crewmen swarmed the landing pad where the shuttle touched down, ready to do their respective job while wearing thick clothing provided by the military.

When the transport shuttle's rocket propellers shut down, the ground crew who are gathering around the landing pad got to work immediately. Performing some small checkups and maintenance to the shuttle if needed before they would move it down to the hangar built under the airfield's ground, where a massive workshop was built, where the shuttle will undergo the real maintenance and refueling process. Several of the crews were calculating the amount of damage the shuttle sported from its way through the atmosphere just moments ago and the amount of resources they need to use in order to replace those damaged parts and what not, while the others are preparing the necessary procedures to move the shuttle down to the workshop.

However, among all of the workers tending to the shuttle, three military personnel are waiting for the passengers inside to come out. The man standing in the middle who looked like the leader of the other two stands in silence, same to like what the other two men flanking him on both sides are doing. He was wearing **[RED][HVM Kevlar]** armor set with a gasmask that comes with red see through visor that covered his facial features while holstering a **[RED][HVM 001]** pistol on his right leg and a **[RED][HVM 008]** light machine gun on his back. The other two regular **[HVM Soldiers]** were wearing the normal variant of **[HVM Kevlar]** armor set while holding **[RED][HVM 005 G-Class]** each.

"About time he got back. I hope he won't mind getting a new task even with the fact he just came back from a mission." The leader muttered silently under his mask while looking down in thought.

"Ah, it would have seemed that I am not the first one to be here, hmm?" A new voice pipes in.

The leader turned to face the new arrival. A man wearing white clean robe where he keeps three different colored pen and a small note, sky blue jacket under his robe, a thick long pants and brown shoes. With short messy hair cut and round glasses with brown trim he wore everywhere he goes; it doesn't take a genius to know what kind of occupation this man has. Not to mention that the new arrival had the logo of Z-Arm Tech industrial company stitched on his robe's right forearm.

"Oh, hello professor. What makes you came out here in this cold winter?"

"Ah, yes, I am sorry if I happen to intrude your duty right now, **[HVM Captain]** Sanches. But I was contacted by the SAS' **[Vice Commander]** that the shipment our company requested via contract will be arriving now. It would seem that is the case. So I am here to retrieve them and hand over the payment to our contractor when we reached the bunker." The professor explained.

Sanches, the **[HVM Captain]** , merely shook his head. "No, don't worry about it professor. I only need to talk to your contractor for a minute or two about something important."

The professor pushes his glasses back to the point where it turned completely white from the light reflected by the lenses. "Hmm… you're meaning to ask **[Chief Field Surgeon]** Henry Duke to treat your wounded men, I see. Such act of kindness is a very good trait for military officer should have, indeed."

Sanches nods in all honesty, since the professor already figured his true intentions out. "Of course I am, professor. I will not let my men suffers and dies under my command as long as there is something I can do to prevent it. We were trained to protect lives after all."

Content with Sanches' answer, the professor replies, "Very well, Captain. I do not think such kindness shall be halted by anything, even my own business here. Go forth and talk your problem to our contractor, I shall handle the shipment while you are at it."

Just when professor Haddock finished talking, the shuttle's rear ramp goes down, revealing the three SAS along with everyone else, with Amelia riding on Henry's shoulders. The scene caught Sanches by surprise, because as far as he knew, that **[Medic]** are supposed to be headed out to a shipment retrieval mission, not a rescue operation. Not to mention that those girls were looking young, let's not forget that two of them who looked slightly older than the other three is wearing a 'quite-a-sight-to-see' attires (AKA Evelyn and Zoe). Anyhow, the sight of these girls is NOT in the sight that he expected to see. Meanwhile, professor Haddock DID expecting a couple of survivors to tag along his company's contractor since he was briefed on the content of the contract, but he also NEVER expecting to see something like this.

On the ramp, Henry ignored the looks he were getting by Sanches and the rest of the crewmen and said, "Welcome to Aartis, girls. I'll give you a heads up that living here might prove to be dangerous, so you better be prepared both mentally and physically. Now, just try to ignore their stupefied look and stay with me until I gave you further order." After earning nervous nods from them, he leads the group to where Sanches and his men were waiting.

"AHEM!" He cleared his throat in movie like fashion which actually worked on getting the attention he needs. "Hello, Sanches. I take it you were sent by the Z-Arm Tech to claim these shipments back?"

The professor extended his hand which Henry took. "My name is professor Haddock Holiday, one of the head researchers from the Z-Arm Tech weapon manufacturer industry. About that shipment, yes, you are correct. I was dispatched by the manager in charge to retrieve the shipments. But we shall talk more about this later, for our **[HVM Captain]** has some words he needs to discuss with you."

At the professor's que, Sanches and his men took a step forward to take the spotlight. They saluted him and assumed at ease stance after Henry returned the gesture. "It's great to have you back, Chief."

Henry gives him a simple nod. "Yeah, it's been quite some time since we've last met. Now, drop the formalities because I ain't got the time for that between friends." He joked slightly, "So, what do you want to ask?"

"Straight to business, just like the Henry I know." Sanches always liked that part of him. He does not wasting time by engaging in small chat as long as he is on duty, but he could be a laid back guy when off duty and doesn't mind to chat about every small thing. But when he thought about his problem, his expression darkened quickly, although it was masked by his gas mask. "It's about my men."

"Your men?" Henry questioned, but the chain links swiftly inside his mind. "Ah, I take it was about the attack from two days ago. Carrel already informed me with the most recent and major events going on at the town." His expression then turns serious. "Then cut to the case. How many of your men is waiting in the sickbay?"

Sanches then gestured the number with his fingers. "This many." He said.

There is… one… and three.

"Thirteen men are waiting in the sickbay?" Henry scoffed a little. "You know, I've never heard of an escort party dispatched by the HVM military to be exceeding 12 people in total. Are you sure those thirteen men are actually under YOUR DIRECT command only?" He questioned, not believing the man in front of him about the matter at hand.

Sanches could feel a small drip of cold sweat forming at the side of his face as Henry managed to strike his point hard. The HVM military COULD send more than 12 men for an escort mission, because he had heard some rumors that HVM military had sent about 40 men in total to escort an important person before. But under normal circumstances, a shipment delivery escort mission, such as the supply delivery for Aquila, was done by less than 12 people where the 12 is max. It seems that Henry pays quite a good attention to military details like this too, Sanches thought to himself.

"W-well, only five of my men were originally under my command were in the sickbay. The other eight was the town's patrol teams."

Henry flashes an invisible smirk to him. "That's more like it."

In the meantime, while Sanches were talking with Henry, Carrel and Gregoria had been tasked to unload the cargo out of the shuttle, AND load them into another shuttle that would take the shipment creates out to the Z-Arm Tech industrial facility, which is the place where those cargos truly belong. The one who gave the task is no other than professor Haddock himself. The girls, since they were told to wait until further orders by Henry, could only watch as Carrel worked together with Gregoria to push the shipments out of their initial transport, which apparently was named as 'Space Turtle 01-25' with white paint on its side, before loading them into the other transport shuttle by pushing the shipment create UP ITS REAR RAMP MANUALLY. They feel bad for letting the two **[Assault]** SAS work together alone, even though unknown to them, the two questioned SAS were more than USED to this since they've been doing this a lot of times. This was caused by the lack of tools and smaller heavy duty vehicles that could be commonly found in airport, so many of the SAS who happens to be wandering around this airfield could often be seen helping around a lot.

Feeling that she cannot stand to watch Carrel and Gregoria ' **suffer** ', Zoe nudges at her companion. "Hey Evelyn, shouldn't we help them instead of standing here doing nothing at all?"

Evelyn sighted and folds her arms under her medium-sized _assets_ before replying. "I would like to help, to be honest. Unfortunately, our orders are to stay here and wait until further instruction from the commander. Helping them would be great and all for me, but that would mean we'll end up disobeying order."

"But, even if you say that…" Fubuki muttered lowly, also wanting to help the two **[Assault]** SAS. Unfortunately, she also doesn't want to disobey her order in the process.

"Then we should just ask the commander." Zoe said, turning back to Henry.

Evelyn was about to stop her from doing so, but since she was not quick enough, Zoe beaten her to it before she could do anything. "Commander, commander… can we help Carrel and Gregoria moving those shipments?"

Feeling the soft taps on his shoulder, the man in question turns around to see Zoe and his team mates who are already working on the shipments. "Oh, it seems they have started without me. Alright, go ahead and help them if you want, I'm not against the idea either. But make sure you only move the ones with ' **Z-Arm Tech'** logo labeled on them. If you don't know how the logo looks like, you can just check the one pinned to professor Haddock's lab coat on his right forearm."

The girls, including Amelia who had been set down from his shoulders minutes ago, cheered together before heading out to help his squad member.

"It seems you have found quite an energetic bunch, don't you think Chief?" Sanches asked.

"Heh, I don't think you're going to believe this, but aside from Amelia over there, the rest of the girls are not survivors."

"Yeah, figured as… Umm, excuse me?" Sanches and his men did a double take in case they miss heard the statement.

"Oh, you heard me right. They are NOT survivors." He repeated, getting the feeling that Sanches and his two men were giving him the 'are-you-serious?' look.

"Ohkay then…? So what are they?" Sanches asked, feeling uncertain of the answer he might get from the **[Medic]**. He always expecting some weird answers from the man in question, as if this world is not weird enough in its own way, but that statement does NOT present on his 'weird things in life' list. "Personally, aside from how well those girls tolerate this chilly winter air, they looked normal for me. Well, I'm not talking about the two older ones; I'm talking about the other three Japanese schoolgirls."

Seeing that Sanches won't quit nudging his sides verbally to seek the answer, Henry gives him a brief run down on what had occurred back on planet Thera. But he only told him about his… 'Not so great' encounter with Zoe and Evelyn before moving onto their introductions and how he discovered Fubuki, Mutsuki, and Yuudachi all packed together inside a shipment box. He also informed the **[HVM Captain]** about those girls being the personification of tanks and warships from centuries past.

(AN: Speakin of which, I forgot to mention that the year is 2345 today, sorry about that.)

The reaction is as expected; Sanches couldn't help but scoffs at the story he thought of as 'entertaining' from his old acquaintance. "Oh please, Henry. I know you SAS can be a badass killing machine once you are to be deployed in the field, but do you really think I would believe some insane story like that?" Sanches stated, clearly not convinced by the story in which where Evelyn and Zoe has the ability to fire a miniature tank shells – an armor piercing type – from their respective gun turret they always carries back on Thera.

Henry rolled his eyes and pointed something directly behind him with his thumb. Looking past him, Sanches and his men spot Evelyn LIFTING one of the Z-Arm Tech shipment creates ABOVE her head using both of her slender arms, and a completely baffled professor Haddock who are standing nearby. Directly behind Evelyn, Zoe were working together with Amelia to push another shipment creates, but from the looks of it, the former was the one doing most of the pushing. Then Fubuki, Mutsuki, and Yuudachi whose hands were full with carrying TWO shipments create stacked up on their hand each. All the while Carrel and Gregoria were laughing amusedly to watch how the rest of the crewman around them had their reaction faces were laid bare in the open.

"Speak to yourself dude. But you cannot deny the truth of my story anymore." Henry said with that 'not amused' face before leaving Sanches and his men who would've had their jaws dropped if it's not for their gasmask in the way.

"There you go, poi~" Yuudachi puts down her share of work gently beside the other shipment stack. With the last two that she carried out of the way, they have finished their task at hand, and they all smiled with satisfaction from their work.

"That was easier than I expected." Zoe stated.

"Well, if it was not for our bodies made to be as strong as a tank, you wouldn't be saying that." Evelyn commented.

"Those shipments feels like card boxes poi~, I feel like I could do this all day even though they looked heavy at first, poi~." Yuudachi said as she moves her arms back and forth leisurely.

"Well, I think it's only natural for us to feel that way, Yuudachi-chan. Unlike Evelyn-san and Zoe-san, we were built based on warship after all." Fubuku stated.

"Yeah, Fubuki-chan is right." Mutsuki pipes in. "Even though Evelyn-san and Zoe-san is older than we do, we are much stronger than them."

"Haha, I can't deny that now, can I?" Evelyn laughed while rubbing the back of her head. She fully understands during her short time that she spent with the three destroyers, that they were in fact much more stronger and power full compared to her and Zoe combined. Even with the fact that the three of them were destroyers, the smallest combat warship ever exist, there is no way for a tank like her and Zoe to outmatch them in a frontal fight.

"We were younger, yet we are stronger compared to them…" Mutsuki solemnly muttered to herself. "I feel like we don't deserve to be made this way."

"What the hell does that suppose to mean?" A new voice pipes in, turning the girls' attention to the owner immediately.

"Commander/Admiral (poi~)!" They snapped to attention, surprising a number of ground crewmen nearby, including professor Haddock and Sanches.

"Mutsuki, you better not belittle yourself, or Fubuki, or Yuudachi just because of that reason." He said, making the questioned girl flinch and feeling embarrassed for being found out. "Only because you are young doesn't mean you're completely useless. Yeah, go ahead and say that you're stronger than both Evelyn and Zoe combined, so what next? You're going to throw your abilities away?" Henry went silent for a couple second before continuing, while also noticing that Mutsuki is trying to look anywhere else other than him. "You do know that thanks to your base construction concept is from that of a destroyer means you could withstand more damage than Evelyn and Zoe, don't you? I'm certain that there will come the time when you will need them and be the one who turned the tide of a battle in your favor. You could become one handy personnel to have, if not vital, in any future missions to come." He scolded her with a deadpan tone. "Do you understand my point? Or do you want me to make it easier for you to understand?"

The red haired destroyer shakes her head in denial while looking down in sadness. This is just great, doesn't it? Not even a day have passed since she was activated along with her friends to serve her admiral, but she has successfully displeased him instead. What if her admiral won't like her because of her mistake? If that happens, she would rather be scrapped than staying alive. So she encouraged herself to speak up. "No, admiral. I understand." She said, her fear still lingers within her heart… until a solid object with rough surface ruffles her hair. "Eh?"

"Now that's more like it. As long as you understand what you did or said wrong, and you try your best to fix it, then you don't have to worry about me getting angry over you." Henry said as he petted Mutsuki who seemed to be enjoying it.

Ignoring Gregoria's squeal of delight seeing how cute Mutsuki and Henry was, Carrel manages to hack down the last shipment that doesn't technically belong to the Z-Arm Tech company which also opens the create. Within the create, is what looked like a miniature of ship parts and what not; cannons, chimneys in the shape of backpack, shoes with propellers, torpedo tubes, anti-air guns and so on.

"Hey guys, look what I found." He gestured the three destroyers to come over.

"Ah, our rigging!" Fubuki stated as she and the rest begins to put them on.

Everyone looks on as the shipgirls fitted themselves with their rigging, which apparently fits with their frames comfortably.

"Well, these looks promising… somewhat." Carrel stated. "Are you sure they could actually survive for more than ten minutes in the frontline?" He turns to Henry with a bit of uncertainty plastered on his expression behind his **[RED][Carbon Fibre Helmet]**.

Both Henry and Gregoria just shrugged with the former replying. "We never seen them in actual combat before, but it's safe to say they won't stand a change out there since the zombies ALWAYS tries to overwhelms anything in their path. So, I think it's safe to say that without proper equipment and training that is equivalent with what our town watch forces were trained with…" He shook his head with a small frown, "they're not gonna last long."

Unfortunately for them, as if fate decided to proof Henry's statement, the alarm system that was installed throughout the city roars to life.

 ***REEEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNGGGGGG***

The once silent and chilly winter air now filled with the cursed sound of the alarm, sign that the zombies have launched another attack on the city. All living beings around the vicinity of the city; the airfield, the underground hangar below the airfield, and the town itself, gazed at the uncaring sky. The sense of dread and doom hangs in the air, choking the hearts at its very core.

 ***KA-BOOM!***

An explosion erupted from the Western part of the town. It throws a huge chunk of burning car high into the air, along with several severed limbs sprouting red blood mist as the ground shook in its wake. Several more followed soon after the first one hit, shaking the ground even more violently to the point where the people working inside the underground hangar could feel that there is a major fighting going on. Muffled screams of people running away for dear life and hundreds of thousands of gun shots pierced the sky as the fight is about to went full swing.

"W-what was that? What is going on?!" Zoe asked as she starting to feel panic flooding her feelings.

"The town is under attack, that's what." Gregoria replies with her voice sets in monotone, surprising the girls (minus her squad mates, of course) at how drastically her cheerful demeanor changed.

"Like, seriously?! Then what are we going to do, poi~?!"

"Do you really have to ask, Yuudachi? We are going to murder those bloody fucks and prevent any casualties, even if it would cost out life." Carrel answered, somehow already had his weapons in his hands.

"Sanches, do you have any vehicles around here? Cuz, we're gonna need em'."

"Yes, chief. But we only have the truck that we used to come here." Sanches replies as he pulls his **[HVM 008]** machine gun out and cocked the gun. "Come on, I'll lead the way. Let's move, you two!"

"Professor, head down to the bunker at the town's park, you'll be safe in there since it was our main base of operation in this town. We'll discuss the contract payment later when this shit storm is taken care of." Henry said to professor Haddock who nods and turns on his heels to do as what was instructed for him to do. He sighed as he runs his armored hand through his messy silvery white hair and turns to the rest of his squad. "Listen up, people. Due to how things dropped to shit right now, we gotta' cancel our meeting with the **[Vice Commander]** for now to help the town watch and local authorities to deal with current threats. For my team members who already gone through this lots of times before, we're diving headlong into the fire. As for you girls who have never seen how horrible it is in the frontline before, welcome to the big show. Do no mistakes or you will pay it dearly, keep an eye to your safety first before all else because you're useless to us if you're dead, and make sure you don't lost your life as you do it."

Henry then leads the way into the vehicle that is waiting for them at the entrance. "LET'S MOVE!"

* * *

Somewhere in the town of Aquilla, approximately 2 miles away from the Western frontline which has turned into a bloody urban warfare by now, there stood a tall slum building that towers above most of the structures in the vicinity that was abandoned for years. The building appears to be worn down after being left for so many years, if not decades. But despite it's worn out looks, it still stood strong, even though the signs of natural lives like plants coming out of the cracks in the wall and tons of spider webs here and there could be seen clearly.

Meanwhile, the three destroyers had set up an overwatch on the highest floor. Destroyer Fubuki, Mutsuki, and Yuudachi, each has set up so their respective naval guns is pointing down towards the Western frontline, just like what they've been instructed to do.

* * *

 _~Slight Flashback~_

" _Let Carrel explain the current situation we are in, so you girls won't be left in the dark all the times." Henry, now fully armed with his best weaponry he has, told the girls as he did some last minute check up on his weapons._

 _He is now covered, yet again, from top to bottom, with his_ _ **[RED][Dragonfly]**_ _armor set. Instead of his original_ _ **[RED][Ronson LBM]**_ _machine gun slung on his back, it was now replaced by a semi-auto sniper rifle colored with deep black paint as twin circle of blue energy thingy that is decorating both sides of the gun added some more color to the gun. Its long muzzle has 5 stripes of blue energy light while its scope has twin veins of energy lines connected to its body. Henry told the girls that is was a_ _ **[BLACK][CM 800 Jupiter]**_ _augmented with_ _ **[Lvl.12 Deadly]**_ _augmentation that enhances the overall power rating of the gun which makes it more dangerous, just like the name itself applies. Then_ _ **[Lvl.12 Enlarged]**_ _augmentation that makes its area of effect arcing capability could cover more distance. Then, there is_ _ **[Lvl.12 Race Modded]**_ _augmentation which allows him to reload the sniper faster in case he was caught in a tight spot. The last augmentation is the_ _ **[Lvl.12 Adaptive]**_ _which means that the gun will do more damage to any enemies that is resilient to_ _ **[Shock]**_ _typed damage._

 _(Note that he haven't explained any of these functions to the girls yet)_

 _Carrel cleared his throat to gain the girls' attention. "I will make it short for you. Two days ago, the town of Aquila, the one we saw from the airfield if you haven't realized it by now, are supposed to be receiving their weekly supply shipments of food and water stocks, medicine, weapons, ammunitions, and all those stuffs that you can mention only in your head. But a group of former criminals and street gangs decided to fuck us over and raid the shipments to take them for themselves, and I heard that the town is running on low supplies. Then, as if to pour salt on open wounds, it turns out the escort team that was battered bloody shitless who were retreating into the town was being followed by hordes of zombies because… Well, you know, bloody noisy. Thanks to that, the entire Western district was overrun and the walls that kept the town safe from any zombie onslaught were destroyed."_

" _The SAS were able to clear any remnants of the infected that got through the wall, and since then, the reconstruction of the wall is a go. But as long as the reconstruction is not finished yet, the town is very vulnerable to attacks like the one we are going to stop right now. Today, now that the town is under attack, it is our job to defend it, or else, we will put civilians' life at risk." Carrel finished._

 _Finishing his last minute checks, Henry looks at the girls. "Fubuki, Mutsuki, Yuudachi, there is an abandoned building about two clicks away from the Western frontline. If my memories serve me right, that building should be about sixteen to twenty stories in height, so I will want you three to get to the highest floor and set up an overwatch to support the men with your cannons. Do you need a map to help you out?"_

 _Fubuki shakes her head. "No, admiral, we can handle that issue ourselves."_

 _Henry raises his eyebrow. "How so?"_

" _We, shipgirls, come out fitted with our radar from our real ship form. But it was upgraded so that it will produce an exact top-down map for us to understand our surroundings better. It also has the capability to tell apart between normal humans and our fellow shipgirls, even metal maidens such as Evelyn and Zoe." She explained, earning an interested 'mmm' from Henry._

" _Alright then, it's good to know."_

 _Once they have arrived, the three shipgirls hop out of the truck, accompanied by Sanches' men to escort them. Before they are completely gone however, Henry grabs Fubuki by her shoulder._

" _Fubuki, hold up, you're going to need this." He said while tapping several button on his ISAC._

 _Something then 'beeps!' inside her head and she realizes that it was a contact ID._

" _We can contact each other by using that ID, although it was only between the two of us, it should help me to convey the target location to you later. Can you do just that?" He asked to which Fubuki answers with a nod._

" _Yes, admiral, Fubuki will do her her best!"_

" _Good to know that. But I want you to keep this too." Henry then pulled out a fully loaded Desert Eagle with black paint out of thin air, along with two extra magazine (again with that Sword Art Online panel thingy cuz, hey, FUTURE!)._

" _This Desert Eagle has 14 round clips since I did lots of tweaking with it. Despite that, I want you to use this ONLY when necessary. I've made it so that this pistol has enough stopping power to dent tank armor, so it shouldn't be that hard to take any hostile down if your accuracy ain't shit." He said as he cocked back the gun. "Keep it somewhere hidden, protect Mutsuki and Yuudachi, then return it to me after all this shit storm is over."_

 _Although a little bit hesitant to receive Henry's personally modified Desert Eagle out of respect, Fubuki takes it nonetheless. "Yes, sir!"_

 _Satisfied with the answer, Henry pushes her away lightly, instructing her to go. "God speed, kid. Make us proud!" Henry saluted her which Fubuki returned before he pulls up the truck's ramp and left._

* * *

 _~Back to Real World~_

"…ki…Buki…..FUBUKI!"

"Ah!" Fubuki jumped five feet into the air as her admiral's voice boomed inside her head via the contact ID.

"There you are! Don't lose your focus now, kid. The town watch needs your help. I'm sending the target coordinates now." Henry sighed in relief.

Within a matter of seconds, several new target locations appeared all around the frontline.

"New coordinates received, poi!" Yuudachi said as she began to load another HE shell into her gun battery.

"Let's do this, Fubuki-chan!" Mutsuki said, doing the same thing as Yuudachi.

"Y-yes, let's do it!" Fubuki followed suit. ' _I will make sure admiral won't be displeased by our performance!'_ she thought as the three of them let loose their payload.

 _Meanwhile, on the Western front…_

The skies above the bloody urban warfare were filled with loud screech of several volleys of HE shells.

"INCOMING!" One of the civilian armed with an AK-47 hollered loudly while ducking into his cover behind a concrete barricade, before a shell went off in the middle of the infected horde not too far away to his front.

 ***BOOM!***

The explosion throws numerous infected into the air with many of their limbs decapitated from its original place, creating a gush of blood that flows out freely from their wound.

"Good shot, good hit." Henry said through his ISAC. "Keep the shells coming Fubuki, you're doing a great job, over."

" _H-Hai!_ "

Henry closes the comms and starts to pick on a new wave of infected coming out of a nearby alley into the street. He had spent more than about half an hour standing behind rows of concrete barricade set up around one of the many crossroads. His **[BLACK][CM 800 Jupiter]** is smoking hot from the constant firing he unleashed to keep the hostile at bay. No bullet chasings littered the ground as the gun uses _SHOCK_ or _ENERGY_ type of ammo for its bullets. But dozens of empty magazine littered around his feet is enough evidence how many shot had left Henry's sniper rifle.

A loud 'clicking' noise came from his side followed by a curse. "Ah, shit, I'm out of ammo!" The same man armed with AK-47 who ducked for his cover from earlier announced loudly, hoping that someone among the group had spare magazines.

"Cover me!" Henry yelled through his radio, which connects to the two tank girls – which were known as Metal Maidens - not too far behind him, who gives each other a nod before firing their guns.

Henry throws another one of his signature grenade, the **[Zombie Antidote]** , towards the charging crowds before he left his position and made his way to the AK-47 wielding man.

"Here, use this!" Henry opens another floating menu, tapping several buttons here and there before tapping the 'resupply' button, making the floating window disappear while the man's ammo pouches lit up in blue light, revealing that all of his ammo pouches already filled with fresh AK-47 magazines.

The man's eyes went wide with wonder for a slight moment before nodding a 'thanks' to the **[Medic]** as he pops out of his cover to shoot down several more infected down the left flank.

"They are trying to pass the frontal barricade!" Zoe alerted her commander through her built in internal radio, seeing the front side is starting to get overrun. (She's a tank after all).

Hearing the warning, Henry turns around and hip fires his _Energy_ sniper, his shots struck the enemy with devastating accuracy. The blue energy streak from his shot will made contact with the enemy before penetrating into another one, and each time it made contact with an infected, millions of volts will arc into several other zombies around the first one, enabling him to take down a group of enemies with a couple of well placed shots. Truly the **[Critical Mass Weapon Manufacturer]** showboat style!

Once the frontal side is under control - meaning leaving more than a hundred of corpses lying dead from getting fried by electricity alone – the **[Medic]** turned to face the people holding their right flank. "How is the right flank holding up?" He yelled amidst all the gun fire.

The **[HVM Captain]** in charge of the small group turns his head around to face him. "These bastards keep pouring into the street like flash flood but we're holding!" He shouted back.

Henry was about to said something but stopped when he sees a figure behind the Captain. "Watch out!" Henry pulls his **[RED][Ronson 45]** pistol and snaps a shot into a **[Stalker]** 's head, killing it by destroying its brain.

The stunt alerted the **[HVM Captain]** as he turns around in time to spray several bursts of fire from his **[RED][HVM 004]** shotgun which took down 7 more infected trying to pounce on him.

"Wow, I thought I was done for, thanks doc!" The Captain thanked Henry and goes back to holding their right flank.

Another wave of zombies let out a chorus of screeches as they appear from the underground subway stairs. "I got one more wave coming in fast!" He announced to alert everybody around him of the newly formed wave of zombies that consist mostly of **[Runner]** variant. The town watch group knows that the fight for the town of Aquila is not over yet, so with another renewed spirit, they pour all of their firepower towards the right and left flank while Henry, Evelyn and Zoe focuses mainly on the front.

"Zoe, aim for the subway gate! If it collapses, it should stop those monsters from appearing!" Evelyn shouted to her companion who nods at her as the duo loads another round of Armor Piercing shell into their respective gun turret.

Once their gun is loaded, the pair blasts the subway entrance to kingdom come, blocking the path for the zombies to pour out and buying some small time gaps for Henry to pick out his target properly without wasting his ammo by rapidly pulling his trigger. Henry shot a thumb up without facing the Metal Maiden, thanking their good performance.

"Doc, the right flank is growing hot! We could use that fire support you have!" The **[HVM Captain]** called out. Henry turns around in time to see the questioned man performing a 'bitch slap' across a **[Shamblers]** face, snapping its neck into the wrong angle which killed it instantly from choking. "We have big gatherings of these monsters 300 meters to the north! They were our biggest threat right now!"

Henry responded to his request by calling Fubuki once more and gives the voice command to send the coordinates to the destroyer.

" _Coordination has been sent… Communication with ID 'FUBUKI' established."_

"Fubuki, our right flank is in danger. Prioritize the target that I sent you just now and blow them out ASAP before our right flank is overrun." Henry called out.

" _Hai, admiral. We will do it right away."_ Fubuki's voice comes up over the comms.

It only took 5 seconds until the men fighting on the crossroads hear another thunderous roar of large caliber gun batteries in the distance. The HE shells coming from the three shipgirls MAGICALLY grew larger to the point where they looked, weighted, and has the size of their real life counterpart. They slammed into the area where the large amount of gatherings were once located, engulfing them all in a sea of flames as it pulverize anything that stood within their blast radius. When the smoke cleared out, all that's left is a mountain of burning corpses scattered around the street.

The men cheered on as their morals were boosted thanks for the shipgirls help, despite the fact they thought the ones firing those shells were some artillery team.

"Right flank is secured! Everybody else, direct your line of fire down the left flank! You three, on me to the front, move!" The **[HVM Captain]** commanded the rest of the town watch while taking three of his **[HVM Soldiers]** to assist Henry down the front.

As the town watch group under Henry's and the **[HVM Captain]** 's lead made the final push to finish the attack on this crossroad, a sudden audible roar of rage erupted from the distance, followed by a sudden smash that shook the ground violently. All the town watch members could only wonder what kind of entity could cause such tremor, but for individuals like Henry and the **[HVM Captain]** accompanying the former, their experiences in the field is more than enough to know what caused it. One thing is for sure; whoever is fighting against this 'newcomer' will NOT be having a very good day. Hell, they could be fighting for dear life for all they know. They just pray silently to themselves for whoever is fighting it could come out with their life still with them.

* * *

Meanwhile, as Henry's town watch group were wondering what that roar and tremor is all about, and is doing their final push against the invading infected forces, about 800 meters to their South – technically 800 meters away from the crossroads right flank – another group of town watch is also fighting against the invading infected.

Compared to the group on the crossroad, the town watch down the South clearly had more manpower judging by the sheer sound of fierce fire fighting going on. As this town watch group keeps fending off the endless tsunami of zombies, dead bodies and empty ammunition chasings littered the frozen street for the battle is in full swing. The chilly air of winter that could freeze out skin was broken by the heat of gunfire and deadly projectiles that screeches through the air. But as the infected were cut down by a couple of shots, more and more keep appearing into view to replace what the infected had lost.

Among the town watch members are two of Henry's squad mates, Carrel Red and Steven Pascal, whom both are in charge of the whole group which consisted of armed civilians and local authorities. Working together with the HVM forces, the group has taken position around the courtyard that is part of the Draiglight Plaza and fends off the horde from there.

Fortunately, due to the amount of personnel gathered and spreaded all around the courtyard and inside the plaza itself, the scouts reported that nearly the entire horde had changed their course and is heading this way. This will proven to be helpful to ensure that the Western front won't get overrun. But despite their fortune, there is ALWAYS something that life could do to ruin your day, just to prove that you won't get away easily.

 _ ***ROOOAAAR!***_

 _ ***PAWNCH***_

" **HEEEYAAAARGH!** " Carrel screamed in pain as he was sent flying away to the other side of the courtyard from a monstrous _bitch slap_ to his face.

Pascal who witnesses the spectacle winced hard when he sees Carrel landed roughly by crashing through one of the plaza's window, as well as hearing Carrel shouting ' _you bloody git!_ ' as he did so. When he hears a very deep growl behind him, Pascal, a part of the **[Heavy-class]** SAS and is Henry's squads only **[Heavy]** guy, he turned around while holding his **[RED][Proposition]** cocked and loaded to face the culprit who had sent Carrel flying not a moment ago.

Standing before him, a hulking figure that stands at the height of about 3 and half meters tall (I never know how you use those _feet_ concept for height), the creature is well taller than the **[Heavy]** guy. Its massive lean upper body has sickly dark purplish skin which consists mostly of muscles. Several mighty dull bone spike protruding out of its back, adding the overall tough appearance of it. Two red orbs with blood mist flame effect are glowering at Pascal's smaller figure compared to its own. Its body smells very horrible to the point where one could throw up already, not to mention its own _deadly poisoning gas_ that we call 'breath'.

Only one name that was well known in the SAS Mercenary Corporation comes out of Pascal's mouth.

" **[SAVAGE DEVASTATOR]**!" He hollered out loud as he turned on his heels and jumped into the air away in time to dodge a ranged attack from the creature.

The **[Savage Devastator]** let out a bone chilling screech as it brought its hulking arm that could rip a man in two with next to no efforts upward, before it brought it down with the mighty that of a giant.

 _ ***SLAM!***_

Let's just say the ground is not merely just cracked… It's completely _obliterated_.

The shockwave is great enough to send Pascal flying away in mid air and crashed into the plaza's window beside the ones where Carrel crashed through.

By the time the **[Devastator]** recovered from its ground smashing attack, Carrel had recovered from his unpleasant 'temporary flight career' as well and hopped out from the broken window. He gives a motion to the other infected swarming the area. "Town watch members, focus on taking out the rest of the zombies around you! We'll take care of this bloody git ourselves. **[Assault Team]** , MOVE OUT!"

A sudden chorus from four **[Assault Team Members]** who suddenly appears from four separate light circling Carrel shouting, ' _lock and load_ ', could be heard. With each wearing the same **[RED][HVM Kevlar]** armor set but are using different kinds of HVM weapons, the four **[Assault Team Members]** let loose their bullet storm into the **[Savage Devastator]** which clearly set its eyes on Carrel and his newly summoned **[Assault Team]**.

"Come on Pascal, get on to your feet. We're taking this bloody bastard down right here and now!" Carrel called over his comms as he fires his **[BLACK][1887 Shockfield]** towards the **[Devastator]**.

The comms were filled with Pascal's groan when he forces himself to stand up while shaking off the spider web feelings inside his head. "I know that already." He said before switching his **[RED][Proposition]** with his **[BLACK][Mixmaster]** assault rifle. "Let's get this over with. I promised the kids at the orphan that I will come back." He replied while cocking back the gun which causes it to emit some sort of energy charging sound.

The two SAS charged head long toward the muscular giants while holding down their weapon's triggers. While the town watch group fends off the entire horde, the two SAS make sure that the **[Savage Devastator]** won't direct its attention to the defenders. As Carrel and Pascal let loose their typhoon of energy bolts, the **[Assault Team]** whom Carrel had summoned let loose their own hellish punishment of hot lead.

"Hey, dodge!" Carrel warned one of his summoned **[Assault Team]** who followed his instruction and dived out of harm's way when that **[Devastator]** swings its mighty arm towards him.

"This guy sure is durable." Pascal muttered while shooting at its white skull – which is technically its head too – before the creature shifted its attention to him. Pascal dive rolled out of the way as the hulking infected smashed the ground where he just stood a moment ago.

"We need to take this guy down fast!" Carrel shouted from the other side as he fires off another burst of energy bolts into the giant's back, which swings its arm backwards in an effort to hit him which was met by a failure as the man dodged sideways.

"It's not THAT easy to kill a **[Savage]** type of **[Major Infected]** in mere minutes!" Pascal replies as he hid behind a doorframe to reload his energy assault rifle.

"Bloody hell, you got a point- WHOAH!" Carrel exclaimed as another swift swing misses him by a hair length which he dodged by doing that 'limbo style' dodge before he jumped away to gain more distance from the large infected.

Unfortunately, another member of his summoned **[Assault Team]** was standing beside him when he dodged the attack. So the attack actually connects to the poor soldier and sends him crashing THROUGH a convenience store wall with loud crumbling noises.

"Holy shit, is that guy still alive?!" Pascal asked loudly when he sees the spectacle behind his cover while still shooting at the **[Devastator]**.

It took the **[Assault Team Member]** several moments until he recovers, but when he did so, he flashes an 'I am okay!' hand sign to his leader, Carrel. "He's okay, these guys are a tough bunch." Carrel replied.

"Okay, you know what? Screw this; I'm calling an **[Aerial Bombardment]** to bomb this guy to kingdom come." Pascal said while putting a small radio strapped behind his left shoulder to good use.

The **[Heavy]** guy muttered the coordination where he needed the bombardment to be directed and received an answer of a male robotic voice saying, ' _Coordinates received_ ', before a loud whistling sound filled the winter air.

Carrel who looks up and sees a group of falling black objects made a fist pump gesture. "Let him have it!"

* * *

" _Incoming bombardment!_ "

Gregoria listened over her communication link that connects her only to her squad mates – more like private frequency link – before the sound of explosion reached her ears that came from about a mile away from her location. She looks up from her **[BLACK][Hornet]** 's scope and shifts her gaze to the right in time to see a couple mushrooms of smoke columns rising up to the air as several more orbital artillery strike slams to the ground with near pinpoint accuracy. Looking further upward, another volley of orbital artillery strike penetrates the white cloud to join the others which already struck the target.

She couldn't help but let out a small wolf whistle that express her impressments. "Pascal sure isn't holding back."

On this side, the town watch group commanded by **[HVM Captain]** Sanches had divided their forces into two groups and set up walls of barricades on an overpass and on the main road bellow to hold off the attack. They were met by quite a handful of heavy hitters from the infected, but thanks to Gregoria posted on an overwatch on the entire combat zone, they managed to hold off the attack without suffering any casualties thus far. Gregoria had positioned herself on the roof top of an office building which overlook both location where the two separate defensive line were set up and pick on the stronger targets so neither group will get overmatched by the enemy's heavy hitters. But since she will need more help to actually keep both group in check, she placed two of her **[RED][HIK Heavyshot Protector]** on both side to aid her in keeping the horde at bay.

" _Ma'am, we have another group of infected down the main road!"_ The voice of a young armed civilian as her radio crackles to life. She sifted her sight to the right side and spotted the questioned infected group.

"Confirm target's location. About 381 meters away from here and 181 meters away from your position. Keep your head low and I'll clear them out for you." She replies with her cheery demeanor since we last saw at chapter 2 gone, and was replaced with a monotone one.

Pulling back the trigger, she holds her finger firmly against it, letting rounds after rounds of lethal lead left her sniper.

The first round which strikes home penetrates a **[Bloater]** 's head all the way through the back while destroying its brain in the process, cutting down a **[Stalker]** who was unfortunate enough to be standing behind the **[Bloater]** , and it finally landed on the third infected, which is a **[Shambler]** , killing it instantly. That was three zombies down with one bullet, but after she spends her entire magazine, the infected group was reduced to a pile of dead corpses.

"Town watch, be advised, the infected group is down. I repeat, the infected group is down, I will be waiting for further request, over." She reported through her communication link.

" _Copy your last,_ _ **[Captain]**_ _. Just keep on doing what you do best, over."_ Sanches replies.

It was around that moment when the sound of glass shattering which comes from down below that caused her to look down. Dozens of zombies are crowding the entrance, with each of them fighting over the slim space to enter the building, presumably to hunt her down. She looks around the area and found that the zombies have managed to find another route to get to her. Just from a slight gaze, she counts up to eight dozens of infected running towards the building she was in, and the number is increasing.

"Uh-oh…" She groaned as she took out 3 **[M48 UHE Grenades]** and throws all three of them on the office's entrance. Three explosions followed suit, decimating about two dozen of them in the process.

"Sanches, I got hundreds of infected which managed to sneak around your defensive line and is trying to get to me back here. I'm afraid you're gonna have to hold the line without my assistance for a while until I clear them out." Gregoria reported via her comms while swapping her **[BLACK][Hornet]** sniper rifle with **[BLACK][RIA 30 Strikeforce]** shotgun which has been dangling down her side for all this time.

"What? How the heck did they got pass us?!"

"Either they were hiding all this time or they managed to find another route to get to me, I have no idea. But I can handle this problem just fine, you just focus on leading the town watch to hold the line, over and out."

After she finished informing the questioned **[HVM Captain]** , the sound of rapid and heavy footsteps coming from the stairs enters her ears, a sign that the infected has found her. Several seconds is all it takes for a pair of **[Evolved][Runner][Elite]** to appear, charging straight at her with their claw-like slender arms stretched in front of them.

"Let's get this over with." She muttered before pulling the trigger and basically obliterating both infected with one shot. One of the **[Runner]** has his head blown off from the sheer power of the shot while the other one had a huge chunk of its side ripped off, exposing its intensities dangling down before the two drop dead. And because her **[BLACK][RIA 30 Strikeforce]** uses a thermal type ammunitions, it will ALWAYS sets its target on fire, so the two corpses was reduced to a stack of burnt crisp in no time.

All of a sudden, the infected decides that it might be a good idea to do a bazai charge on her position. So, with a chorus of roars, over 16 infected pours out from the stairs accompanied by 5 **[Apex][Bloaters]** which carries a huge-ass and bloodied chainsaw each.

Gregoria's eyes went wide for a split second. "Holy mother of god!" She exclaimed before pulling the trigger rapidly over and over again.

* * *

 _~Two Hours Later~_

After the long battle at the troubled homefront comes to an end, all that is left on the empty streets around the Western part of the town is nothing but thousands of decaying corpses, countless bullet chasings, dried blood, and lots of burning chunks of cars, roads, building, and anything that was hit by the destroyer shells. Despite how chaotic the place looked like, the town watch that consisted of local authorities such as police, armed civilians and militia, mixed with the **[HVM Industry]** military personnel and the SAS Mercenary Corporation had secured the safety of the town. This proves that the city will see another day.

Despite the fact that there are no casualties suffered by them during the fight, the town watch group suffered a lot of injuries on their side, no thanks for the sheer numbers the infected has, of course. The three groups led respectively by Henry, **[HVM Captain]** Sanches, and Carrel who was assisted by Pascal, managed to link up on the main road and drag their exhausted forces back beyond the safety of the Western walls. During their trip, they came across the relief forces that are dispatched by the SAS' **[Vice Commander]**. The fresh batch of town watch group that was assigned to take over the battered ones consist of three SAS team of four-man-squad, 30 **[HVM Soldiers]** led by 3 **[HVM Captains]** , and over 45 local authorities as a whole.

At first, the relief forces looked 'oh-so-very-confident' when they came across the battered ones, but upon closer look on the battered group's condition, their confidence crumbles faster than a collapsing skyscraper.

Out of 24 **[HVM Soldiers]** and 30 local authorities (including armed civilians) that participated in the fight, over 13 of them suffers critical injuries, 21 of them suffers moderate to major injuries although not quite life threatening, and the other 20 suffers a lot of cuts and bruises all over.

During the fight, Henry tanked a lot of hit during the clean up stage where he charged straight into the enemy line to ensure that his group won't have to deal with an overwhelming number of infected, while also dividing his focus to keep the group away from danger. Unfortunately, Henry is nothing but one man, and he cannot do too many task at once, so the group still ended up suffering 4 critically wounded men. This was also the reason for him to walk back with his town watch group in tow while using his **[BLACK][CM 800 Jupiter]** sniper to support some of his weight. Hell, even his **[RED][Dragonfly]** armor was covered from head to toe with countless blood splatters and grim evidence of slash marks.

Meanwhile, the **[HVM Captain]** , whom he worked with during the fight, is not faring any better. He was grateful enough for the fact that he is still alive right now. He didn't forget to thank Henry for saving his sorry ass during the battle, because if he didn't, he would've been nothing but a delicious lunch for the zombies which managed to encircle him. Henry claimed that it was a miss fire from him when an infected managed to slap his sniper's muzzle away and pulled the trigger out of instinct, but the Captain thanked him anyways.

Carrel was surprisingly still in good shape despite having _bitch slapped_ by a certain infected ' _The Incredible Hulk git_ ' as he like to call it. The only serious blow he suffers from today's fight was when the **[Savage][Devastator]** managed to give him a huge dose of surprise butt sex (not literally, duh) when it appeared out of nowhere, and bitch slap him all the way into the plaza.

Pascal however, is not so fortunate when dealing with that questioned **[Devastator]**. The evidence was clearly showed by his **[RED][Hardplate]** armor set which bents and cracked all over the place. It was around the time when he got distracted by a small group of infected that tried to ambush him that gives all the time the **[Devastator]** needed to slam both of its mighty arm down on him. Up to this point, nearly everybody in the town watch group still wonders how he survived, with the only exceptions of his squad considering the two Metal Maidens and the three shipgirls were clueless.

Gregoria was not as lucky as Carrel either. As a sniper hiding in a building _completely alone_ in a zombie apocalypse world and is operating without anybody to keep an eye on her back, getting spotted and chased down by the enemy might be the last thing you want to happen. Thanks to her built as an **[Assault]** -class which prioritize speed and deadliness above all, she managed to fight off her attacker despite with great difficulty. Even though gravely wounded, she marches on and assisted Sanches and his men on the frontline which they find very respectful, although not before complaining to the entire group when they link up together with her _words of wisdom_.

" _Getting smacked around in tight space is not fun, ya' know? Not to mention if your enemy comes with a chainsaw."_

It's little to no wonder how her **[RED][HVM Carbon Fibre]** armor were mangled up pretty badly. Several huge gash covered her figure while her helmet is practically destroyed with its red see-through visor cracked badly too. Out of discomfort, she opted to not wear her helmet, with the reason of its mangled internal part were pricking her injured head.

All in all, the battered town watch group was then transported to a nearby hospital by several military trucks dispatched to pick them up. Once arrived safely, the nurses and doctors got to work immediately. They mostly work on the critical ones in hope to not lose them sooner or later. Meanwhile, as the hospital staffs work on their part, Henry and the rest of his squad were forced to suck it up for a bit and help treat the wounded. Evelyn and Zoe couldn't help much for the lack of knowledge in this field of work, but they did their best to help carrying stuffs that the doctors required to treat the wounded as well as by nursing them. Fubuki informed that she, Mutsuki, and Yuudachi is arriving soon to help out too.

After treating about 5 people, Henry went over to Pascal who is already sitting on the waiting room while holding onto his wounds by applying some pressure to it wouldn't bleed too much.

"For the love of god, are you seriously working with open wounds like this?!" He scolded his **[Heavy]** guy who looked back up at him and flashes him a smile.

"I have seen better days, sir. But I've also gone through worse than this. So, I guess I'm okay for now." Pascal replied, wincing from the pain that struck him all over his body.

"No, you are NOT okay, and I am not letting you work with these wounds on my watch." Henry rejected Pascal's claims and produces a medkit from his pocket and applies it to Pascal (Yes, I make it so that the medkit was a bit bigger than an adult's palm. This is about the size of glass plate). "There, that should ease your pain for the moment."

"Why don't you use your medkits on the wounded, sir?" Pascal said while looking up to him.

Henry went silent for a fracture of a second before something clicked inside his thought. "Oh right, I haven't told you about this. Well, the reason is that medkits was designed to be used exclusively by the member of SAS Mercenary Corporation. Our capability to procure endless streams of medkits as long as we have sufficient _Energy Points_ which recharge over time could be seen as overpowered in its own way."

He then looks out of the hospital window, staring at the uncaring sky. "This could be disastrous if the enemy got their hands on this, thus why it only works as long as a **[Medic]** -class SAS operates it. But the flaw is that everybody else who is not an official member of the SAS won't receive its full potential when used on them. Meaning that their wounds WOULD heal, but it will speed up normal human's repair tissue to work about three to five times faster than its normal rate, unlike the instant healing effect the SAS gets." He finished before going to a nearby dispenser to pour himself and Pascal a drink.

"I see, so that's how it is…" Pascal muttered before taking a sip from the drink he gets from Henry.

"The same concept also applies to all properties which rightfully belong to the company. All of our skills, abilities, armors, weapons, turrets, and even augmentation pieces will only perform their maximum capability when their respective owners are the one who wields them. Put it like this: the augmentation you installed within your weapons and armors will only works as long as YOU are the one who wields them. If I were to equip anything that belongs to you, the augmentation will simply shut itself down and it cannot be used unless you gave me the permission to use it. It's as if I am using a newly made weapon without any sort of attachments on whatsoever." Henry stops to take a large gulp of his drink.

"Now I'm not gonna go full Albert Einstein for ya' and explain everything to you to the details on how the SAS technology works in its mechanical nature, because those were the jobs of the operator back inside the bunker. But I'm sure you understand the gist of it, at the very least." He said emptying his cup while earning a nod from the **[Heavy]** man.

"Yes, sir, I understand. Thanks for informing me about that."

As if on cue, the three destroyer shipgirls burst through the main door, causing Pascal to stand up from his seat for he knows that break time is over for him.

"Admiral, we have arrived, poi~!" The ever so energetic Yuudachi, who have gotten rid of her armaments and riggings, greeted the **[Medic]** by slamming herself into his larger frame (bear hug).

Henry chuckles at Yuudachi's antic in amusement as he cracks his fingers.

"Alright ladies, we need to help the hospital folks to treat the wounded. Follow Pascal's instructions if you need any help cuz' I'll be needed in the operating room." He smiled in content when the three gives him a nod.

"Let's get this shit over with… Let's go!"

* * *

 _ **There you go, it's done! It took quite a while for me to come up for this scene, and yes, I know it's a bit shorter than the first two chapters, it's because I was feeling a bit lazy these weeks. You can simply notice the evidence if you compare how this chapter begins and how it ends. But nevertheless, it is done, and I hope you enjoyed it.**_

 _ **Now that the four-man-team squad is complete (Henry, Carrel, Gregoria, and Pascal), I think it's appropriate to give you guys some detailed list about their capabilities each. You know… those guns n' armors they're wearing, and their abilities.**_

 _ **Slight warning for my fellow SAS 4 players: I will make their LVL based on how capable and reliable they are in combat, including their achievement on the battlefield. So, their LVL doesn't affect their total amount of**_ **[Skill Points]** _ **. I'm planning to make it so that they must spend more time in the training ground (or improving ground, however you want to call it) in order to gain more skill points which they can add to their skills.**_

* * *

 **Henry Duke**

 **Armaments:**

 **[RED][Ronson 45]: [Deadly Lvl.12] – [Capacity Lvl.10] – [Adaptive Lvl.12] – [Race Modded Lvl.12]**

 **[BLACK][CM 800 Jupiter]: [Deadly Lvl.12] – [Enlarged Lvl.12] – [Adaptive Lvl.12] – [Race Modded Lvl.12]**

 **[BLACK][Shotlite Tempest]: [Deadly Lvl.10] – [Piercing Lvl.10] – [Adaptive Lvl.12] – [Capacity Lvl.5]**

 **(Note: He had swapped his [RED][Ronson LBM] before he went to the Western wall with his** _ **[Black ][Shotlite Tempest]**_ **, although it was never used in the end. Being the youngest member of his team, he has yet to finish his preferable weaponry upgrades, but he is still working on it. Since he loves his job as a support role in combat, Henry opted to become a** _ **combat medic**_ **type of support role, which means despite having the SUPPORT job in his squad, he trained himself hard to make sure he wasn't too vulnerable and could put up a nasty fight for his foes if he ever gets cornered. His experience of having trouble with fighting off a huge numbers of zombies at once kind of made him preferring arcing weapons, which becomes the job of his [CM 800 Jupiter]. He also didn't forget to keep a close quarter combat full-auto shotgun in case of being cornered in the future.)**

 **.**

 **Armor:**

 **[RED][Shotlite Dragonfly Helmet]: [Fortified Lvl.12] – [Smart Target Lvl.12] – [Revitalising Lvl.12]**

 **[RED][Shotlite Dragonfly Vest]: [Fortified Lvl.12] – [Hazchem Lvl.12] – [CQC Enhanced Lvl.12]**

 **[RED][Shotlite Dragonfly Gloves]: [Fortified Lvl.12] – [Hazchem Lvl.12] – [Nimble Lvl.12]**

 **[RED][Shotlite Dragonfly Pants]: [Fortified Lvl.12] – [Machine Assisted Lvl.12] – [Body Fueling Lvl.10]**

 **[RED][Shotlite Dragonfly Boots]: [Fortified Lvl.12] – [Machine Assisted Lvl.12] – [Revitalising Lvl.12]**

 **.**

 **General Skills:**

 **[Fast Movement] = 15 Points**

 **[Recovery Time] = 15 Points**

 **[Body Armour Expert] = 10 Points**

 **[Energy Boost] = 10 Points**

 **[Energy Regen] = 10 Points**

 **[Field Supplies] = 25 Points**

 **.**

 **Medic-Class Skills:**

 **[Medkit] = 20 Points**

 **[Protective Aura] = 25 Points**

 **[Revive] = 15 Points**

 **[Bio Cleanse Bomb] = 20 Points**

 **[Zombie Antidote] = 25 Points**

 **(Note: Years of hard work in improving his [Zombie Antidote] skill; Henry managed to make a breakthrough which he always keeps secret from anybody which includes his squad. He could set his [Zombie Antidote] bomb to last for more than 30 minutes instead of 32 seconds (which is max duration limit in the game) with a drastic decrease of its damage.)**

* * *

 **Carrel Red**

 **Armaments:**

 **[RED][Mustang]: [Deadly Lvl.12] – [Piercing Lvl.10] – [Adaptive Lvl.12] – [Race Modded Lvl.12]**

 **[BLACK][1887 Shockfield]: [Deadly Lvl.12] – [Capacity Lvl.12] – [Race Modded Lvl.12] – [Adaptive Lvl.12]**

 **[BLACK][RIA T7]: [Deadly Lvl.12] – [Overlocked Lvl.10] – [Piercing Lvl.10] – [Capacity Lvl.10]**

 **(Note: For missions where he goes against the infected, Carrel admitted that he prefer the use of his [1887 Shockfield] for the amount of carnage it could cause and its advantage in lightweight. But he made sure to keep his [RIA T7] which uses Thermal rounds that could cause maximum trauma on soft targets close to his side at all times. Upgrading the [RIA T7] is admittedly a pain for his wallet, but the combat record it held is enough for him to reconsider his view.)**

 **.**

 **Armors:**

 **[RED][HVM Carbon Fibre Helmet]: [Fortified Lvl.12] – [Heat Resistant Lvl.12] – [Smart Target Lvl.12]**

 **[RED][HVM Carbon Fibre Vest]: [Fortified Lvl.12] – [Heat Resistant Lvl.12] – [Hazchem Lvl.12]**

 **[RED][HVM Carbon Fibre Gloves]: [Fortified Lvl.12] – [Heat Resistant Lvl.12] – [Nimble Lvl.12]**

 **[RED][HVM Carbon Fibre Pants]: [Fortified Lvl.12] – [Heat Resistant Lvl.12] – [Machine Assisted Lvl.12]**

 **[Red][HVM Carbon Fibre Boots]: [Revitalising Lvl.12] – [Machine Assisted Lvl.12] – [Hazchem Lvl.12]**

 **.**

 **General Skills:**

 **[Fast Reload] = 10 Points**

 **[Fast Movement] = 20 Points**

 **[Toughness] = 10 Points**

 **[Health Regen] = 20 Points**

 **[Body Armour Expert] = 15 Points**

 **[Grenade Damage] = 25 Points**

 **.**

 **Assault-Class Skills:**

 **[Adrenaline] = 20 Points**

 **[Deadly Force] = 25 Points**

 **[Close Quarters Combat] = 20 Points**

 **[Stim Shot] = 20 Points**

 **[Killing Spree] = 20 Points**

 **[Assault Team] = 25 Points**

 **(Note: Due to being older and had served in the SAS for much longer compared to his squad leader, Carrel spent most of his time in the training/improving ground equally longer. Carrel could be the gentleman if he wanted to in the right places – even though he DOES being the gentleman most of the time – but when he enters combat, he could be the nightmare itself. However, serving longer doesn't mean doing more missions and having more achievements than his team. He was offered the change of being promoted, but he humbly turned it down and chooses to stick around as a [Captain]. Many questioned why he does this, but ultimately let him do his own thing.)**

* * *

 **Gregoria Beilschmith**

 **Armaments:**

 **[BLACK][Trailblazer]: [Deadly Lvl.12] – [Capacity Lvl.12] – [Race Modded Lvl.12] – [Adaptive Lvl.12]**

 **[BLACK][Hornet]: [Deadly: Lvl.12] – [Capacity Lvl.12] – [Overlocked Lvl.12] – [Adaptive Lvl.12]**

 **[BLACK][RIA 30 Strikeforce]: [Deadly Lvl.12] – [Overlocked Lvl.12] – [Capacity Lvl.12] – [Piercing Lvl.12]**

 **(Note: She has two natural talents which allow her to become one of the best snipers in the solar system. Being able to finish stealth and detection courses in a considerably short time amongst her peers, she was rewarded with the [BLACK][Hornet] which she carries around no matter where she goes, for it has became a part of her life. In case of emergency, she opted to use her [RIA 30] instead of any other weapons she kept in her inventory slots. When it comes to combat, she is the** _ **silent death**_ **itself. Put her into an assassination mission and she will do the job right. Even her enemies never knew what happened when she's finished. She loves spending her time with her squad member, but she somewhat feels more cheerful whenever Henry is around, thus making her rather clingy for the younger [Medic]. In the mean time, she still seeks for answers to her clingy behavior towards her squad leader.)**

 **.**

 **Armors:**

 **[RED][Carbon Fibre Helmet]: [Target Assist Lvl.12] – [Smart Target Lvl.12] – [Fortified Lvl.12]**

 **[RED][Carbon Fibre Vest]: [Fortified Lvl.12] – [CQC Enhanced Lvl.12] – [Heat Resistant Lvl.12]**

 **[RED][Carbon Fibre Gloves]: [Fortified Lvl.12] – [Heat Resistant Lvl.12] – [Nimble Lvl.12]**

 **[RED][Carbon Fibre Pants]: [Fortified Lvl.12] – [Machine Assisted Lvl.12] – [Body Fueling Lvl.12]**

 **[RED][Carbon Fibre Boots: [Fortified Lvl.12] – [Revitalising Lvl.12] – Machine Assisted Lvl.12]**

 **.**

 **General Skills:**

 **[Fast Reload] = 10 Points**

 **[Fast Movement] = 20 Points**

 **[Health Regen] = 10 Points**

 **[Field Supplies] = 25 Points**

 **[Grenade Damage] = 25 Points**

 **[Critical Shot] = 25 Points**

 **.**

 **Assault-Class Skills:**

 **[Adrenaline] = 10 Points**

 **[Deadly Force] = 25 Points**

 **[Stim Shot] = 25 Points**

 **[Killing Spree] = 15 Points**

 **[Assault Team] = 20 Points**

 **(Note: Despite her mastery in stealth and detection capability, being a part of [Assault-Class] caused her to grow rapidly in the art of swift and deadly combat style like any other [Assault] SAS out there. She consulted about this matter with Henry before, and she was told that if she were to choose either one of two options above, Henry would respect her decision. Hence from that day, Gregoria improved her talents and literary mastered BOTH options which amaze not only her squad, but also the division where she came from. Although she prefers to stick together with her team most of the time, if the team requires a long overwatch in order to clear a wide area with limited cover, she will happily do so since it was part of her natural talents.)**

* * *

 **Pascal Herrman**

 **Age: 36**

 **Occupation: SAS Mercenary, [Heavy-Class]**

 **Approximate Combat Level: 57**

 **Rank/Position: Assistant Chief**

 **Appearance: Straight shoulder-length black hair – Emerald eyes – 193 Centimeters in height.**

 **Uniform: Standard issued Heavy-class SAS Mercenary uniform. Wearing a set of [BLACK][Hardplate] armor made by [Rubicon Industries].**

 **(Author's Note: Haven't put one bit of description regarding Pascal yet, so I'll just put it here.)**

 **.**

 **Armaments:**

 **[BLACK][Mustang]: [Damage Lvl.12] – [Piercing Lvl.10] – [Race Modded Lvl.12] – [Adaptive Lvl.12]**

 **[RED][Proposition]: [Damage Lvl.12] – [Piercing Lvl.12] – [Capacity Lvl.12] – [Race Modded Lvl.12]**

 **[BLACK][Mixmaster]: [Damage Lvl.12] – [Piercing Lvl.12] – [Overlocked Lvl.10] – [Adaptive Lvl.12]**

 **(Note: Being the team's only [Heavy-Class] personnel, it is up to him when the order of 'raining bullets onto enemy positions' is issued to the team. Using pure usage of his weaponry, he can turn into a one man army in most conditions which requires long-term survival with maximum destruction upon the enemy. Some military or local authorities whom had witnessed him in combat pictured him as a** _ **lawnmower**_ **. By which they mean that Pascal's opponents is the GRASS with HIM as the LAWNMOWER.)**

 **.**

 **Armors:**

 **[BLACK][Hardplate Helm]: [Fortified Lvl.12] – [Heat Resistant Lvl.12] – [Revitalising Lvl.12]**

 **[BLACK][Hardplate Chest]: [Fortified Lvl.12] – [Heat Resistant Lvl.12] – [Hazchem Lvl.12]**

 **[BLACK][Hardplate Gauntlets]: [Heat Resistant Lvl.12] – [Hazchem Lvl.12] – [Nimble Lvl.12]**

 **[BLACK][Hardplate Leg Protection]: [Heat Resistant Lvl.12] – [Hazchem Lvl.12] – [Machine Assisted Lvl.12]**

 **[BLACK][Hardplate Boots]: [Fortified Lvl.12] – [Revitalising Lvl.12] – [Machine Assisted Lvl.12]**

 **.**

 **General Skill:**

 **[Toughness] = 20 Points**

 **[Health Regen] = 25 Points**

 **[Body Armour Expert] = 25 Points**

 **[Energy Boost] = 25 Points**

 **[Field Supplies] = 10 Points**

 **[Grenade Damage] = 10 Points**

 **.**

 **Heavy-Class Skill:**

 **[Hold The Line] = 25 Points**

 **[Heavy Gear] = 20 Points**

 **[Tough Body] = 20 Points**

 **[Die Another Day] = 25 Points**

 **[Brute Strength] = 25 Points**

 **[Aerial Bombardment] = 25 Points**

 **(Note: Being the oldest in the team and having served for several years longer compared to the rest of the team, Pascal had become one hell of a killing machine that could put the strongest regular mechanized infantry to shame. If he wanted to, he could level an entire city in one or two days thanks to his ridiculous capabilities that even his own team questioned at times. He has the absolute protection against most attacks sent his way, as well as an equally devastating firepower to boot. The title of** _ **'One Man Army'**_ **granted to him amongst his peers was there for a good reason after all.)**

 **(Surprisingly, even though he could be the most dangerous infantry in combat zone, he actually has a soft spot when it comes to children, people, and animals that are not capable of defending themselves. His team made a theory about that matter which explains that perhaps due to his ridiculous defense stats and overwhelming power, it leads him to grow a personality where he felt responsible for protecting the weak. This could be why he chooses to work in the orphanage whenever he has time. Thanks to that, he's capable of doing many daily chores. He didn't forget to teach his team mates to cook sometimes too.)**

* * *

 **There you go, that should cover how my SAS team pass their days in the town of Aquila. For some reason, I have this tingling feeling that someone is laughing at my bad naming senses, but well, that's who I am. I rarely ever come up with good names. By the way, if you want to know what do these augments and skills does, you can just visit the wikia.**

 **Anyway, making this took me two days just to finish, and I have not re-read this chapter to check for any mistake so I could post it today on November 1** **st** **2017, so if you found any slip ups in this chapter, please tell me via review and I'll try to fix it right away.**

 **One more thing, if any of you perhaps interested in making your own group of SAS OC's, feel free to show them to me in the review. The requirements that you must make can be copied from my SAS OC's description above. I can guarantee that several future missions that need to be done by two or more SAS squads could be the moment when your SAS squad shows up. It wouldn't be convenient if I just slap some HVM forces into missions which only the SAS could do, would it?**

 **Now with all of those is out of the way, it's time for me to depart, comrades. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I do, and don't forget to favorite, follow, and review so it could push me to become a better writer. Thanks for your time, and I'll catch you next time. Bye-byez!**

 **.**

 **Henry: "Hey dude, you're comin'?"**

 **Me: "Yeah, I was just finishing some things."**

 **Gregoria: "Oh? What was it?"**

 **Me: "I'll tell you guys as we go. For now, let's get aboard the shuttle and get our contract done."**

 **Pascal: "Yes, sir."**

 ***Everybody boards the transport shuttle piloted by Carrel and take off into the blue winter sky***


End file.
